Entry fee to visit Te Papa shot down

Wellingtonians look set to continue to help fund Te Papa’s free-entry policy despite calls to change it.

An inner-city residents’ group has floated the idea that out-oftowners should pay to visit Te Papa. Wellingtonians would continue to get in free because they effectively pay for the museum via their rates.

But the idea has been quickly dismissed by Wellington Mayor Justin Lester and Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson, who said the Government was not considering charging for entry.

Te Papa spokeswoman Kate Camp said it had always been free for New Zealanders ‘‘and will stay that way’’.

‘‘We have never contemplated charging Kiwis to enter Te Papa. From time to time, we have considered charging international visitors, but this is not on the table at the moment.’’

Te Papa sometimes runs paidentry exhibitions.

The museum gets some of its funding from the Wellington City Council’s $14 million annual downtown levy – a fund set up to get shoppers into the central city but now used for things such as Carter Observatory, Te Papa and the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (Wreda).

Sarah Webb, of Inner-City Wellington, has called on the council to take another look at how the levy is used, and whether the Te Papa element could be removed.

‘‘I have been to museums all over the world [and] I have never been to a free one,’’ Webb said. ‘‘Te Papa is one of the better ones.’’

While the downtown levy made up only a small portion of Te Papa’s revenue, nobody had made it clear what that money was used for, she

"From time to time, we have considered charging international visitors, but this is not on the table at the moment."

Te Papa spokeswoman Kate Camp

said. It probably played a part in keeping it entry-fee free.

Council spokesman Richard MacLean said there was no council support for an admission fee, but it and Wreda were open to discussing how the levy should be used.

In the most recent financial year, Te Papa had almost $58m in revenue, of which close to $30m came from central government. The council’s grants – 70 per cent of which came from the downtown levy – amounted to $2.25m in the year.

Chris Wilkinson, of business development group First Retail, said the council needed to take a ‘‘more contemporary’’ view of how the downtown levy should be spent, because a lot of its beneficiaries should now be self-sustaining or be looking at other ways of funding.

The levy, charged to commercial, industrial and business property owners in the central city, was originally used to fund free weekend parking, as well as promotions for central city shopping.

While the council had said it was willing to talk to those who paid the levy about possible changes, this was yet to happen, Webb said.

‘‘Over the years, the funds raised as part of the downtown levy have been put to a variety of uses, and at times there appears to be little or no accountability to those who provide the funds.’’