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Saturday, September 26, 2020

Louis Houlbrooke: Revealed - the bizarre ways the Government is fighting COVID-19


Jacinda Ardern (who moonlights as the Minister of Arts, Culture, and Heritage) has been pouring millions in extra taxpayer funding into Creative NZ for its COVID-19 response.

Now we see the result: our research team have combed through the 637 grants (totalling $16 million) handed out under the new Arts Continuity fund, and you either have to laugh or cry.

Here are some highlights from the successful applications:

To research and write the first draft of a novel about male affection in hypermasculine spaces.
AWARDED: $13,000

Towards the composition, recording and production of music inspired by the psychogeography of the West Coast.
AWARDED: $34,900

To support the personnel costs and post-production editing for an art documentary based on Papua New Guinea tattoo practice and revival.
AWARDED: $27,500

Towards writing a children’s picture book (text only) about sustainable community activist Helen Dew.
AWARDED: $3,200

To create and develop an online publication, arts learning resources and musical content based on children’s drag theatre show, The Glitter Garden.
AWARDED: $18,000

Towards the composition and instrumental arrangement of 10 songs for children, from ideas given by children.
AWARDED: $24,600

Towards writing poetry that explores indigeneity and love in the time of climate change.
AWARDED: $17,798

Towards writing a novel about the collapse of democracy in an association of alpaca breeders.
AWARDED: $26,000

Towards a dance concept video showcasing the impact Coronavirus has had on the New Zealand Chinese community.
AWARDED: $24,500

Towards the development of a first draft of a play that explores the menstrual cycle.
AWARDED: $16,766

Towards an Indigenised Hypno-soundscape to take you to the imagined worlds of our Kōrero Pūrākau.
AWARDED: $49,999

Towards development of a movement technique that guides and empowers the participants in becoming specialists in their own body.
AWARDED: $4,530

Towards 3 x hour-long live-streamed electronic music performances with live visual animations, from a kitchen in Paekakariki.
AWARDED: $47,703

Towards a wananga for Maori healing theatre practitioners.
AWARDED: $50,000

Towards composing and recording ten original compositions inspired by emotions felt during the Covid-19 lockdown.
AWARDED: $8,885

Towards development of a new body of work exploring modernism, feminism & queerness, with specific reference to the Otago region.
AWARDED: $30,089

Towards revision and editing of a sailing memoir.
AWARDED: $7,200

Towards a Māori, queer, young adult novel adaptation of Hamlet based on my innovative unproduced screenplay ‘Hamarete’.
AWARDED: $21,000

Towards designing new Māori typefaces for print and digital.
AWARDED: $22,110

Towards the writing, arranging and preproduction of music that forms a song-cycle from the suburban labyrinth.
AWARDED: $21,800

Remember: this money is all going straight onto the Debt Monster's credit card. Our kids will be paying it back with interest. It makes an absolute joke of the Government's COVID-19 response and proves how politicians will use any crisis as an excuse to do special favours for their favourite interest groups.

Louis Houlbrooke is the Campaigns Manager for the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union.

4 comments:

Ray S said...

I am laughing and crying at the same time.
I am seriously considering applying for a grant to "Study and promulgate aspects of the use of gobbledegook where its use results in significant fiscal advantage over and above those who otherwise have a better grasp of reality"
$100 K should do it

Anonymous said...

As you say, dont know whether to laugh or cry at such stupidity. Probably disbelief and anger that my money is used for such nonsense.

Allan said...

St John Ambulance. An essential service. But when it comes to funding, the government says NO. Yet more & more of our tax dollars are waisted on trivia, as listed above. Sorry, but the answer is; "It makes me cry."
The government gets away with this disgusting situation, because too few voters bother to research before they vote. Thankyou Mr. Houlbrooke, for enlightening those who support Muriels always welcome, & very informative, NZCPR News Letter.

Anonymous said...

I wonder why this sort of unbelievable wast of our money hasn't been printed in our daily papers, or discussed on our radios?

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