News
Budget 2005
20 May 2005
| Byline: | Humanities Research Network |
|---|---|
| Source: | Govt Press release; TEC Website; Budget 2005 |
A bullet point overview of Budget 2005 in the arts, culture, heritage and education sectors.
Budget 2005 includes funding for culture and heritage in increases to baseline funding for leading arts, culture and heritage organisations. These include:
- Te Papa - an additional $12 million in capital funding over the next four years has been approved to support Te Papa's projected five year capital plan to maintain the optimum museum experience.
- Creative New Zealand - an additional $950,000 per annum (GST exclusive) for baseline funding from 2005/06 for organisational capacity. This includes a mix of increased revenue to sustain current activity levels and new positions to advance a key arts marketing and development initiative.
- New Zealand Symphony Orchestra - an additional $1.6 million in 2005/06 increasing to $2.2 million in 2006/07 (GST exclusive) and out years to maintain the orchestra's current capacity and performance.
Creative New Zealand will also receive;
- $2.6 million (GST exclusive) as a one-off appropriation in 2005/06 to enable it to provide funding for some of New Zealand's key performing arts organisations -- Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand Film Commission and the New Zealand Film Archive -- to cover the anticipated reduction in their income from the Lottery Grants Board.
- $788,000 as a one-off appropriation for 2005/06 for capital funding to upgrade Wellington's Old Public Trust Building, which is partly owned by Creative New Zealand. The funding will also help develop the organisation's IT capacity, to improve the way it manages relationships with clients.
"Te Papa, Creative New Zealand, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra are key public institutions and the government is committed to their success," Helen Clark said, in a press release issued 18th May.
Budget 2005 also includes:
- protecting New Zealand's heritage through support for the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the New Zealand Film Archive and the Antarctic Heritage Trust, and commemorating New Zealand's contributions in World War One and the Korean War ($5.9 million)
- advancing the Government's Public Broadcasting Programme of Action, including support for NZ On Air and Radio New Zealand ($42.2 million operating and $3.8 million capital).
Budget 2005 delivers $1.4 billion new spending over the fore-cast period to improve quality in our education system. This is in addition to spending decisions funded from 2004 Budget funds, totalling $1.0 billion, and is offset by forecasting changes of $0.1 billion over the forecast period. Key investments since Budget 2004 include:
- investment in early childhood education to further implement the Early Childhood Education Strategic Plan announced in 2002 ($151.7 million)
- increasing school operations grants for all state schools by 2.4 percent from January 2006 ($77.8 million)
- providing for an extra 421 full-time teachers in secondary, area and middle schools ($91.3 million)
- efforts to better reward excellence in tertiary education, increasing investment in the Performance Based Research Fund ($75.6 million) to provide a larger pool of funding for allocation to Tertiary Education Organisations on the basis of their performance under the PBRF
- a student support package to improve access to tertiary education and reward our best performing students with bonded scholarships (57.5 million).
