You have Denise Roche and Gareth Hughes doing badly because they were in an electorate with a tight two-way tussle - the 3rd (/4th!) place inevitably gets squeezed. Under MMP there's been a distinct shift to voting Lab / Nat in electorate seats from when we had FPP. More sensible would be how well those candidates did on Party votes. But you'd still end up with the tyranny of geography - able candidates unable to get in because they live in seats with opposing philosophies to them, and people unwilling to contest tough seats because it will hurt their personal chances.

I like the idea of an open list, like in Sweden, but in reality party members don't know who's good in their party at the other end of the country, those who merely vote for a party will have even less chance. And that's presuming an engaged public who actually care...

Perhaps open lists would work better if we had regions to our MMP like most other countries who have versions of it?

Places like the fabulous Depot in Devonport will be offering Apprenticeships. Collaborating with new artists can be inspiring and helpful for the old professionals as well as for those learning the techniques – and most Artisans like to give back and see their field thrive. In the case of the Depot it will no doubt give them more to display too.
Bigger institutions will no doubt have apprenticeships as well – it’s not hard to see how film studios, NZSO, RNZ Ballet, theatre companies etc could use them.

I disagree that art has no economic value – try auctioning a Picasso! But I do agree its main value is not economic – society would not be particularly ‘human’ without it.

But it still needs funding – so where we can get money from it rather than funding it from other sources, surely that is much better? Besides our creative industries, however ignored by this government, do in reality provide a lot of economic value. Look at Lord of the Rings, the even bigger Auckland film industry, our advertising industry, even how Naked and Famous are doing in Germany right now…

To write off that economic side to it is to devalue it as well.

National collections, from the pdf:

Labour will continue the work to establish a Collections Council for the identification of collections of national significance and objects of significance, and ensure that regions that meet air and temperature standards and safety guidelines will have access to those materials for display to the public to increase the community knowledge, enjoyment and appreciation of our kiwi heritage. We will further develop partnerships with local authorities, businesses and NGOs.

Over time and as resources allow, Labour will:
- Develop a Centre for Arts Conservation at Te Papa and agree on a nation-wide approach for taonga and art restoration including the establishment of a national funding mechanism for conservation of taonga and art held regionally.
- Establish a New Zealand-wide distributed national collection to increase community knowledge, enjoyment and appreciation of New Zealand’s heritage through collection holdings.

Steve – Artists are indeed everywhere – which is why funding needs to be everywhere not just central, but into the regions.

When we released the policy at the Depot ArtSpace in Devonport today there was considerable excitement for both the Creative Industry Apprenticeships, and the Children's Art Houses.

Shona Hammond Boys is shortly off to visit the White House, because Obama wants to launch Children's Art Houses there, they are such a fantastic idea. Labour will back them, and get our children and youth's creative talents focussed.

Creative Industry Apprenticeships will develop our creative talents across Aotearoa. It builds on and develops PACE, which has been run down under National. It helps develop NZ artists so that they can be an important part of contributing to the NZ economy - and the arts do contribute significantly, regardless of how much they are ignored by National (with actors specifically punished by being removed from the immigrant work rule that you have to try and find a local person first to fill a role - that will be reversed by Labour).

The Regional Museums Fund will be expanded to allow more funding of regional arts infrastructure - so art is not restricted to Wellington.

How National can fit a policy that covers the many and varied sectors of film, music, literature, fine art, performing arts, museums, archives, historic places, culture etc on the back of a napkin astounds me.