Dialogue: Handouts to wannabe artists fresh burden for taxpayers

Long-term benefit dependency is a likely outcome of the Government's new welfare programme for struggling artists, writes MURIEL NEWMAN*.

Mike Chunn, in a Dialogue article, expressed his criticism of my concerns over Pace, the Government's new welfare programme for artists.

The Pathways to Arts and Cultural Employment programme is designed to give the dole to unemployed artists. If they fit the criteria of the new scheme, they will no longer be obliged to look for other work but will be able to stay on the dole to pursue their art until a job in their chosen field becomes available.

According to parliamentary questions I have asked, an unemployed person could express a preference for work in the arts and cultural field, for the purposes of the new programme, if their job choices fall within but are not restricted to: performing arts, fine arts and crafts, literary arts, information technology, design and graphic arts, curation and preservation, arts administration and marketing, Pacific Island arts, nga toi Maori.

The breadth of the stated criteria, of course, raises the vexed questions of not only what is art but also of how many artists a country like New Zealand can support. And that is at the heart of the concern I and other taxpayers have about the programme.

At the end of November, 4919 people registered as unemployed specified "artist" as their first occupational choice. At $154.56 a week for a single unemployed person, the 4919 would-be artists were costing taxpayers more than $40 million a year.

The Employment Minister, Steve Maharey, said that he expected many thousands to be eligible for the new programme. It appears that not only many of those 4919 unemployed artists could be entitled to join the programme.

It would also be available to people who are working in a different field but would prefer to have the support of the taxpayer while they further their careers in their chosen fields of art.

For example, a would-be author, who works in retailing as a day job to keep the wolves from the door, would probably be eligible to go on the dole to work full-time on his or her manuscript.

Similarly, painters, photographers, models, actors, musicians, clowns, kapa haka performers, dancers, strippers, poets and street buskers could presumably give up any other work to go on the dole to focus on their art so they would be able to make a living from it.

The issue which Mike Chunn seems to ignore is that hard-working taxpayers, many of whom are struggling to raise their families and pay their taxes, will be required to foot the bill for people whom the Government is encouraging to choose to be on welfare.

While most New Zealanders are willing to support people who cannot look after themselves or who need temporary assistance, most draw the line at funding people who prefer to stay on welfare rather than accept the responsibility to earn their own living.

Years ago the Dutch Government brought in a scheme to encourage painters. In return for a benefit, they had to produce a quota of paintings. Numbers on the scheme quickly grew from 200 to more than 5000 and the Government became increasingly embarrassed by the large quantity of "art" that no one, not even the artists, wanted. Storage became a major problem, lingering on for more than a decade after the scheme was axed.

A comprehensive report that led to the demise of the scheme suggested the country could support only about 200 commercial artists, the number there had been before the scheme began.

The report concluded that the other 5000 would-be artists who were being supported by taxpayers would never be able to earn their living from their art.

I worry that Pace, by enticing struggling artists on to the dole and encouraging those who would like a career in the arts to stop looking for other avenues of work, will create a dependency trap that may be difficult to escape. While Pace is clearly yet another special assistance measure targeted to the arts by this Government, it may raise unrealistic expectations among beneficiaries that a stable job with a good income will be their right.

The reality is that jobs are available in a field only because consumers demand those products and services at prices they can afford.

If the market demand is not there, not only will those sitting on the dole doing their art and waiting for a job be disappointed, but taxpayers will be forced to support long-term benefit dependency.

Good policy has the public interest at its core.

Policy designed to satisfy minority interest groups does so at a cost to us all.

The amount of taxpayer money taken by the Government to run the country is finite.

Spending it to allow some people who are able-bodied to stay on the dole for years improving their skills in an area of particular interest to the Government, while rejecting other jobs that they could well do, means the funding is not available, for example, for cancer treatment.

Mike Chunn pursued a successful musical career through hard graft, rising above adversity to achieve his goals and dreams. In doing so, he has provided enjoyment for thousands of New Zealanders.

That is a story that resonates in the achievements of most top artists. Success did not come easily but nor does success in most areas of life. Greatness is achieved only through sacrifice, hard work and dedication.

State dependency has a long track record of holding people back, not propelling them forward.

* Muriel Newman is an Act MP.