Local Government Long-Term Plans: A powerful opportunity for collective advocacy

This year most local councils have been preparing Long-Term Plans for 2024 to 2034. Our team provided feedback on twelve of these.  

These included draft LTP’s for Kirikiriroa Hamilton City Council, Ngāmotu New Plymouth District Council, Ōtautahi Christchurch City Council, Papaioea Palmerston North City Council, Porirua City Council, Rotorua Lakes District Council, Tāhuna Queenstown Lakes District Council, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Council, Tauranga City Council, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington City Council, Waihōpai Invercargill City Council, and Whakatū Nelson City Council.

We are providing feedback to other Councils who, for various reasons, are working to different timelines.

Captured in these plans is what a council will do, why it plans to do this work, and how much it will all cost. Crucially, a council must consult with the community on these proposals before making a final decision. 

Many arts organisations receive core funding from local government — often in partnership with central government (including Creative New Zealand) and community/private funders (such as Foundation North and the Rata Foundation). Many councils support arts activities through community grants for arts workshops or festivals. They also make decisions on capital spending, like whether to build a new arts centre.

So, when a council releases its proposals in a draft LTP, we ask lots of questions: Will a cut to community funding affect creative practitioners and organisations? Can artists access affordable spaces to produce and share work? Does the LTP recognise the importance of ngā toi Māori and customary arts practices for cultural wellbeing? Will a new art gallery meet the needs of the community?

These plans involve decisions that could have a significant impact on the presence of arts, culture, creativity and ngā toi Māori in our communities and daily lives.

Council budgets must strike a balance

Councils are currently facing momentous challenges. High inflation, infrastructure upgrades, ongoing recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle, growing populations, and adaptation to climate change are some of the pressures being carefully balanced in their budgets. 

In this context, encouraging decision-makers to recognise the immense value of investing in arts, culture, creativity and ngā toi Māori to support local communities is more important than ever.  

Creative Waikato Chief Executive, Dr Jeremy Mayall sees  challenge and opportunity when engaging with local government around the country.

“The challenge is how to remind elected members and decision makers about the important contributions their artistic, cultural and creative communities make to the quality of life, and sense of place that they are elected to represent. This work is often not top of mind for councils due to the complexity of the system that local government is responsible for.”

Many councils do recognise and celebrate the essential role of the creative sector in their LTPs. Papaioea Palmerston North’s LTP included a goal of ‘a creative and exciting city’ that connects people, where creativity is built into the cityscape. 

Ōtautahi Christchurch similarly stated a commitment to promote the four wellbeings by prioritising the community outcome of ‘a cultural powerhouse city’. Nelson and Invercargill’s City Councils both proposed new arts facilities in their city centres to support the arts sector and wider community. It’s important to look at how councils plan to realise these goals, including appropriate consultation with creative communities.

The Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Act states that the purpose of local government is to promote community wellbeing. Find out more on the Taitura wellbeing website 

By contrast, in other LTPs the contributions of ngā toi and the creative sectors to their communities were sometimes less visible or not recognised. There were also some proposals that would detrimentally impact our already fragile arts and cultural ecosystems, such as cuts to community grants or event sponsorship. 

Our submissions showed the value of the arts 

We acknowledged the councils’ difficult outlook, while pointing to evidence from our research, New Zealanders and the Arts - Ko Aotearoa me ōna Toi that the creative sector can support them to meet their challenges, and that New Zealanders increasingly recognise the economic benefits of the arts and support public funding more than ever.

These reports are free to download from our website New Zealanders and the Arts - Ko me ōna Toi Aotearoa.

We explained the adverse impact of the current economic environment on an already vulnerable creative sector, and stressed the urgent need for secure and stable council investment in the sector to ensure it survives and continues to serve communities. 

We urged decision-makers to maintain their investment in our creative communities and explained that Creative New Zealand’s ability to provide support is also under strain. We drew attention to the long and broad reach of council  funding to the many layers of our creative ecosystems.

We encouraged councils to see arts, cultural and ngā toi Māori organisations as valuable partners to achieve the priorities and vision in the LTPs, pointing to ways that arts, culture, creativity and ngā toi strengthen communities through connection, empowerment and placemaking.

Impactful submissions tell a story

One of the most impactful ways to bring a submission to life is through sharing a story.

In our submissions, we included case studies of how arts, culture, creativity and ngā toi Māori uplift and strengthen our communities. Te Tairāwhiti’s Three-Year Plan was focused on Cyclone Gabrielle recovery. In response, we shared the work of Te Whānau a Kai to facilitate cyclone recovery through sculpture for Matariki in 2023. In partnership with Te Māra Rākaunui o Aotearoa (New Zealand’s National Arboretum), Te Whānau a Kai ran an innovative cultural festival where trees felled by the cyclone were transformed into works of art through a carving symposium, bringing almost 6,000 people together to reflect, connect and find relief during recovery from a natural disaster. 

A submission does not always need to follow a traditional format. In response to Tauranga’s draft LTP, the city’s creative communities filled the Council chambers with art, music, poetry and waiata to urge the Commissioners to maintain arts funding. 

Collective advocacy has greater impact

Collective advocacy for the economic, social, cultural and environmental value of the arts is the most powerful way to encourage local decision-makers to support the creative sector. We do this work with others to build a collective movement of arts advocates.

A great example of this is our annual roadshow All in for Arts - He Waka Toi e eke noa nei tātou, delivered in partnership with the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi. At the 10 All in for Arts events held around the country this year we invited the mayor or a councillor from each location to share their reflections on the power of arts and culture with their community.

You can hear these reflections in the All in for Arts podcast

Regional arts organisations hold important relationships with their communities and are valuable partners for councils to deliver their LTPs. We worked closely with some of these organisations — including Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi in Tāmaki Makaurau, Creative Waikato in the Waikato and Arts Murihiku in Invercargill — to share information, perspectives and insights, and ensure each submission was as responsive to local needs, pressures and demographics as possible.

This year, we worked with Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi on a platform for resources and templates,to help arts communities engage with Auckland Council’s Long-Term Plan, Arts Action Now

As Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi’s Creative Catalyst, Jane Yonge recognises the impact of the  city’s wider infrastructure on how people participate in and experience arts and culture. 

“It’s vital for multiple voices from the sector to have their say on the future of Tāmaki Makaurau, and we felt a strong appetite from the sector to engage. Our work with RANA and Creative New Zealand sought to encourage the sector to share their stories with decision-makers and this collective advocacy can inspire real change.”

Look for chances to engage with your local council

Many councils have now finished their consultation processes on their LTPs and are starting to release their decisions after considering the feedback. However, there will be ongoing opportunities to engage with council proposals, and councils want to hear from you. 

Public engagement with council planning is generally increasing. Palmerston North received a record number of submissions on its LTP this year and is encouraging its community to continue feeding into council decision-making. Hamilton City Council also indicated in its LTP that it will be consulting further on whether to cut funding for community grants.

We have already seen some councils change or evolve their decision-making based on this engagement, and there will be more change to come.

We know that repeated and shared messaging on the value of creativity is effective. This messaging is most powerful when supported by a diversity of voices, including yours.

Arts advocacy resources

Creative New Zealand has two key resources that support advocacy around local government investment in the arts: Arts and Culture: part of your community’s future, and the Fact finder for arts advocates.

Find these and more about our advocacy work on the Advocating for the arts section of our website