Hon Carmel Sepuloni

Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage

Te Minita Manatū Taonga

• The Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme will be boosted by $70 million, enabling the coverage of the Scheme to be extended right through to 31 January 2023 for events that were planned before the move to Red. Key eligibility criteria have also been extended.
• The Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund has been provided an additional $35.5 million to fund more direct support for individuals and organisations
• The limit on funding for individual organisations has been increased from $100,000 to $300,000.
• A one-off grant of $5,000 will be available to eligible self-employed individuals/sole traders in the arts and cultural sector who have lost income or opportunities to work.
• The Screen Production Recovery Fund has been boosted by a further $15 million.

Following the Government’s shift to the Red traffic light setting and ongoing pressures on the arts and culture sector, the Government is moving swiftly to cushion the blow, providing further support for the sector, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni announced today.

“The Government has been actively engaging with the arts and culture sector to understand their needs as the pandemic has progressed, and we’re responding by delivering much-needed financial relief,” Carmel Sepuloni said. “The arts and culture sector contributes approximately $10.9 billion to the New Zealand economy, making up about 3.4% of GDP.

“Our strategy continues to be to slow the spread of Omicron down. New Zealanders have helped put us in a position to fight Omicron, but as we’ve said before, when COVID changes, we change.

“The Red traffic light setting, whilst needed to protect the health and safety of New Zealanders, has had an impact on the livelihoods of those who make a living out of arts and culture. That’s why we’re committing to a one-off $5,000 grant for self-employed individuals/sole-traders who can show proof of a loss of income or opportunity to work.

“We’re also extending the Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme, the Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund, and the Screen Production Recovery Fund.

The Arts and Cultural Event Support Scheme will receive a financial boost, extending coverage to events scheduled to take place before 31 January 2023, that were planned before the move to Red. This also includes extension of criteria to cover cancellations due to a lead performer getting Covid or needing to isolate.

“It’s important to reassure artists and crew that they will get paid despite their event being cancelled due to Red. The Scheme includes an obligation to make full payment, as if the event had gone ahead, to artists, performers and production crew and/or organisations.”

The Government are also making it easier for people to apply for the Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund and increasing financial support available for organisations by making changes to payment limits and the eligibility criteria. This will include setting up an application stream dedicated to self-employed people and sole-traders, in addition to the application stream for organisations.

“Internationally, Omicron is having a significant impact on the film industry, with cast/crew sickness in some cases causing productions to shut down, resulting in higher costs. Aotearoa New Zealand’s screen industry will not be immune from these pressures, so we are acting now to provide extra support for this key sector of our economy.

“The Screen Production Fund will receive a boost to enable an extension of the fund through to 31 December 2022, to maximise production activity and minimise the impacts of any COVID-19 outbreaks.

“I’m confident that our move to extend critical support schemes for New Zealand’s arts and cultural event sector will provide some relief and help our wonderful creative communities to get back on their feet.

“I want to acknowledge the huge financial and emotional strain and uncertainty that everyone in the sector is facing, but I want to underline our Government’s commitment to supporting the revival of the arts and culture sector,” Carmel Sepuloni said.

Notes:

Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme:

• The Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme will be boosted by $70.7 million from its current $22.5 million allocation, extending coverage to events scheduled to take place before 31 January 2023, that were planned before the move to Red. This also includes extension of criteria to cover cancellations due to a lead performer getting Covid or needing to isolate. Key eligibility criteria have been extended, such as the criteria for proof of a financial commitment for an event to take place.
• This revised timescale will encourage development of events for New Zealand audiences through late 2022 and early 2023 while also providing income support to artists, practitioners and production crew who rely on those events.

The Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund:

• The Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund has been provided an additional $35.5 million to help more organisations and individuals access critical financial support.
• A key aspect of this is an easy to apply for one-off $5000 grant to self-employed or sole trader practitioners who can show proof of practice as a cultural sector practitioner and show proof of a loss of income or opportunity. The total amount an organisation can receive has also increased from $100,000 to $300,000 per application.

The Screen Production Recovery Fund:

• The Screen Production Recovery Fund will be boosted by a new allocation of $15 million with $7.9 million of this funding allocated to New Zealand Film Commission and $7.1 million allocated to New Zealand on Air.

Implementation:

• Practitioners are encouraged to view the information available on Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s website, and for further guidance please email support.culture@mch.govt.nz to ensure they can receive the support on offer.
• The Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme is already operational and payments are being made to events that have cancelled due to the recent move to ‘Red’. Events that will be newly eligible for the scheme as a result of the extension will be able to register within a week.
• The government is working at pace to extend the Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund to sole traders and individuals. The next steps are to engage quickly with sector representatives to finalise the scheme details, and then design and test the application and payment management system needed to process the applications. We expect to provide detailed information to potential applicants next week, and then open the Fund in three weeks' time.

General noting:

• Overall, the cultural sector relies heavily on independent practitioners and contract workers. Within the sector, approximately 32,675 people are self-employed which is around one third of the total sector and double the national self-employment rate.
• The Arts and Culture COVID Recovery Programme announced in late May 2020 includes more than 25 initiatives designed to deliver short-term relief as well as longer-term support for the sector, for a total investment of $374 million across four years.
• In response to the Alert Level 4 changes in August 2021, a Delta Relief Package of $37.5 million for the cultural sector was announced in September 2021.
• The Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme covers events impacted by restrictions imposed at the ‘red’ level of the COVID-19 Protection Framework or through localised lockdown. To be eligible, events must have attendee capacity of 100-5,000 ticketed, or more than 5000 un-ticketed (i.e. free).
• In November 2021 Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash announced an Events Transition Support Payment scheme designed to give organisers of larger, paid-ticketed events with over 5000 attendees greater confidence to plan and incur costs, in the face of public health risks from COVID-19.
• The Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund was established on 1 October 2021 as a fund of last resort supporting organisations, including sole traders that are in danger of imminent collapse and at risk of no longer operating viably. The funding can be used for essential business costs that the organisation’s income and reserves cannot cover to meet the shortfall between incomes and expenses over a six-week period.
• The Screen Production Recovery Fund of $23.4 million was part of the Government’s Screen Recovery package and was introduced to minimise the cost on the screen sector of future lockdowns and other COVID-related events that might have shut down, delayed or constrained screen productions. The New Zealand Film Commission received $13.4 million and New Zealand on Air received $10 million.
• The Screen Recovery package has enabled domestic productions to access private finance and maintain production during the pandemic, and provides surety for financiers that productions will not fall over due to government restrictions.

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