2024 Submission Guide

• Notable provisions include a $3 million annual increase in Māori outcomes funding from year four, but there's limited information on investment in arts and culture.
• Key commitments encompass continued support for heritage experiences, free and subsidized programs, and community festivals, alongside efforts to enhance fairness in local board funding allocation.

• The Parks and Community section (which Q Theatre fits within) hints at allocating more funding for Local Boards without reallocating budgets, aiming for fairness and equity in resource distribution.
• Additionally, the Economic and Cultural Development section suggests reinstating major event funding, attracting overseas investments, and expanding employment initiatives.

• Parks and Community services would experience diminishing support and grants over time, impacting community services. It's crucial to consider the long-term implications of reduced investment in key sectors and services for Auckland's growth and vitality.
• Economic and Cultural Development would face reductions in support for tourism, technology, and events, with a focus on essential renewals and potential cuts to regional facility hours.

The Mayor’s message addresses his intention for Council to “focus on strengthening the long-term financial and physical resilience of the region.” Mayor Brown wants to “put the council in a position to affordably deliver the basic infrastructure and services expected by Aucklanders”. The Mayor believes this would put Council “on a sustainable financial path” so it can “make the investment required for Auckland to be a beautiful, thriving, and safe place to live”. Mayor Brown sets his expectation that “given our financial challenges, we cannot offer a whole lot of new spending in this budget. Instead, I am asking the council group to focus on doing more with what we already have.”

The draft plan runs to 134 pages. It has an introduction to the plan’s overview and purpose, the problems the Council is seeking to solve, how the LTP sets strategic choices, and key factors influencing the direction of the Mayor’s and councillors’ development of the LTP. This includes Council’s vision, which has an aspiration for Auckland to be ‘a diverse and dynamic city, which honours the place of Māori and includes a rich array of cultural and sporting events, museums, galleries and built heritage.’ As mentioned above, the three options are presented as “scenarios” for public feedback. There is a “Central Proposal” and one either side of that are “Pay More, Get More” and “Pay Less, Get Less” scenarios. Detail on Council services around each scenario are provided, with trade-offs between each of them. Other sections in the plan address major investments, Port land, financial settings, strategic settings, your rates, other matters, and local boards.

The most important feedback is within Question 1:

The first part of the question is:

1a. Which option do you prefer for the overall direction for council’s long-term plan?

This is where you choose one of the three options from above. We encourage you to select either:

• “Proceed with the central proposal” or
• “Do More (increase with council services/investment) with higher rates increases and more debt.”

If you choose Do More, you will have the opportunity further down on the form to provide more information on the activities and resources in which you would like to see increased Council expenditure.

The second part of the question is:

1b. What would you like Auckland Council to do more or less of?
The areas that are most important here for arts, culture, and creativity are Parks and Community (specific to Q Theatre) and Economic and Cultural development.

If you want to see Council do more for the arts, culture, and creative sector, tick “Do More” in both of these sections.

You could finish here but if you wanted to do a little extra, in the box under 1c. include that you would like to see more support of the arts, culture, and creative sector.

We've been told that the inclusion of the same words in multiple submissions has the greatest impact, so we encourage you to include the words:

• Arts, Culture, and Creative Sector
• Performing Arts
• Q Theatre

and try to speak to how important these parts of Auckland are to you.

The first steps you need to take are as above in the 2-7 Minutes section.

The next area within the feedback form that is important to the Arts, Culture, and Creative sector is Local Board Priorities (step 2 of 4 in the survey)
You will be asked to select your Local Board (and there is a link to find it via your address if you don't already know it). 

The next few prompts will be specific to the priorities for your local board. If there are any questions aligned to:

• Arts, Culture and Creativity
• Economic and Cultural Development
• Parks and Community

Then we encourage you to support those initiatives and include any written feedback you can when given the opportunity.

You're so close to finishing, the next section is the final part of the feedback form!

Here you will see a 'Do you have any other comments' section at the very end of the form.

This is the most effective way to communicate with your Local Board how important you think the arts, culture and creative sector is to Tāmaki Makaurau.

Follow all the steps above and add this extra bit to make your submission sparkle.

We've been told that one of the most impactful ways to have your voice heard in this process is to send your feedback directly to the Local Board representatives in your area. Follow this link to find your Local Board  and go to Contact Us where a list of all the members of the board and their email addresses exist. 

At this point you can either collate all of the pieces of information you've written throughout your submission or you can write something fresh to state your case and share what is important to you in the Auckland Council Long -term Plan. 

Remember to include the Key Messages below.