Dear Minister for Arts, Culture, and Heritage,

I am trying to understand and learn more about your position on Nga Taonga Sound and Vision's significant restructuring plan which is currently underway. I would like to learn whether you have had in depth knowledge of the situation and whether you support or have concerns over the current situation.

Nga Taonga - the national audio visual archive - is a private charitable trust that is largely funded by the taxpayer through the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. One of your portfolios is Arts, Culture and Heritage - and yet I cannot find any press statements from you relating to the Nga Taonga restructuring.

I am also troubled by information disclosed in a recent OIA release from Archives New Zealand where it was reported Nga Taonga's CEO allegedly advised Archives NZ staff "that the political pressure to have their sound archives in Christchurch has been removed so they are not wedded to keeping what is in Christchurch in that region.” [Archives NZ email 2/8/16], when just a few week's earlier Nga Taonga's four-year-plan [p.8] noted that the Minister's expectation was for “co-location with Archives NZ in Christchurch”. I would like to understand the inconsistency between these two statements.

According to publicly released information, the restructuring consists of major role changes for staff, redundancies and collection movements (e.g. the entire sound collection will be moved from Christchurch to Wellington)

Therefore, I would like to request:

All inward and outward correspondence from the office of Minister Maggie Barry - including but not limited to - emails, letters, petitions, reports, meeting minutes etc., from 1 July 2016 - 1 February 2017 relating to Nga Taonga Sound and Vision's restructuring plans (announced to archive staff in November 2016).

Yours faithfully,

K.I. Davis

Dear Sally Guinness,

Just to clarify, my actual OIA request to the Minister is for:

All inward and outward correspondence from the office of Minister Maggie Barry - including but not limited to - emails, letters, petitions, reports, meeting minutes etc., from 1 July 2016 - 1 February 2017 relating to Nga Taonga Sound and Vision's restructuring plans (announced to archive staff in November 2016).

(Not just a position statement from the Minister)

Yours sincerely,

K.I. Davis

Dear Alex Fensome,

Thanks for the email regarding the time extension. I look forward to hearing from you,

Yours sincerely,

K.I. Davis

Dear Minister Barry;

Thank you for the response to my OIA request and your expression of confidence in Nga Taonga.

I would like to note that in the released information it states that only five positions will be lost. However since the restructuring was confirmed in December 2016, at least fourteen staff have left or are in the process of leaving (and possibly more to come). I know that's only around 18% of the workforce but I still find that rather concerning, especially when this includes almost the complete loss of staff in the client-supply area and almost the complete loss of institutional knowledge in the Sound Archive preservation and acquisition areas.

I think you should also know that the DIA has confirmed through a recent OIA request (https://fyi.org.nz/request/5402-avalon-a...) that they have not been approached by Nga Taonga in relation to modifying the Avalon facility (e.g. the addition or modification of studios, vaults, equipment or offices) - which Nga Taonga are obliged to do, Nor has the DIA been approached regarding the use of the public facility to house non TVNZ collection material.

I acknowledge your point that Nga Taonga is a non-government organisation and is responsible for its own organisational matters. However you have entrusted this private organisation with the vast majority of the nations publicly produced audio-visual heritage and therefore I would respectfully suggest that you could take a more proactive approach in this area.

Yours sincerely,

K.I. Davis