Dear Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa,

Are you able to please provide:

Number of complimentary tickets that Creative New Zealand employees have received & attended in the previous financial year – split by on-goingly funded, project funded and projects you’ve not funded.

Total number of events or activities such as performances, literary festivals or exhibitions that employees have paid for and,
the total financial value of this contribution.

Yours faithfully,

Nic Lane

Email Correspondence attached

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Pip O'Flaherty <Pip.O'[email address]> To: nic lane <[email address]>

Kia ora Nic

Wed, May 20, 2020 at 7:07 AM

The Fyi.org.nz website is offline at the moment so responding to a request here but I will also post on the website when it is up and running. Please find our response below.

Kia ora Nic,

Thank you for your request. Our apologies that we did not receive notification of this request earlier. Please find our response to your questions below.

Number of complimentary tickets that Creative New Zealand employees have received & attended in the previous financial year – split by on-goingly funded, project funded and projects you’ve not funded.
Creative New Zealand does not hold a record of the total number of complimentary tickets that Creative New Zealand employees have received and attended in 2018/19.

For context, under the terms and agreements in Tōtara and Kahikatea and contestable project funding contracts, where a project includes any events or activities such as performances, literary festivals or exhibitions, Creative New Zealand is offered a minimum of two complimentary tickets. While our team administrators do co-ordinate ticket allocation for larger events (for example, allocation of tickets for the Auckland Arts Festival) a record of the total number of attendances is not recorded.
Total number of events or activities such as performances, literary festivals or exhibitions that employees have paid for and, the total financial value of this contribution.

Creative New Zealand does not hold a record of the total number of tickets purchased in 2018/19, including tickets purchased personally by staff.

We do not have a separate cost code for tickets purchased. Staff charge ticket purchases to their travel expenses however the cost is minimal as most will attend events on complimentary tickets.

You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss this information.

Ngā mihi Pip
DDI: +64 4 4980737 | Ext: 737 Mobile: 0276677024 Working hours: 9.30 am to 2.30 pm Monday to Thursday

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nic lane <[email address]> Wed, May 20, 2020 at 11:07 AM To: Pip O'Flaherty <Pip.O'[email address]>

Thanks for this reply, I hope my new request regarding complaints has come through via FYI.
I'm still interested in how Creative New Zealand continues to show its support of the arts, outside of grants. Purchasing tickets, in my opinion, would demonstrate the value of what we're doing.

My first experience of CNZ RSVP'ing to one of our shows (which was sold out) was that the staff member didn't show up, and made no attempt to apologize.

I think the Green Party updated their policies a few years ago to not accept corporate hospitality, which I think would be an interesting move for CNZ to take moving forward.

Regards,

N

Nic Lane

64 21 250 8756