Creative New Zealand

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Richard Wagstaff skewers a ANZ Bank report which divides government spending into productive and non-productive categories, placing culture along with other functions in the former category.

To make its point, the report divided government spending into "productive" and "non-productive" categories. Among productive spending were education, law and order and transport ...

Similarly, spending on culture is deemed "non-productive". Business professor Richard Florida would disagree. His book Rise of the Creative Class found that to succeed in a modern economy, cities have to attract creative thinkers. Auckland City Council has embraced this concept. Last year, it released a blueprint for growing its creative industries. The council says these employ more than 13,000 workers in Auckland alone and contribute $1.7 billion to the city's Gross Domestic Product. But even as New Zealand cities strive to compete with others world-wide, ANZ says helping cities to be more liveable through culture is "non-productive".

The full story is here.