Funds ‘missing the mark’
Wellington’s $7.6 million coronavirus recovery fund is at risk of ‘‘throwing money into a vacuum’’ rather than creating much needed jobs, city councillor Tamatha Paul says.
The fund was established as part of the Wellington City Council’s pandemic response plan, but includes $2.6m of funding largely tied up for existing events.
They include things such as the World of Wearable Arts, which has been cancelled this year because of Covid-19, and the little-known ReCut event.
Paul said the council needed to think creatively about generating jobs and funding new initiatives, ‘‘not just the same things we’ve been giving money to every single year’’.
‘‘We need to get creative.
‘‘If you’re not targeting that money, you’re just throwing money up into a vacuum.’’
The fund was initially set aside for events, but Paul successfully passed an amendment last month requesting the council steer the money towards job creation through innovation and technology.
She supported retaining funding for annual events operators, which had already been committed to, but said the overall criteria established for the remainder of the contestable fund had missed the mark.
New ways needed to be developed to support traditional events into the future.
The fund, among other things, is for events, initiatives or partnerships which strengthen the city’s profile, contribute to economic recovery, and align with promotional campaigns.
‘‘It is still very much about recovery when a lot us [councillors] have been trying to say this fund needs to be steered towards regeneration, as opposed to recovery.
‘‘This is the perfect opportunity to encourage more sustainable practices. I think that needs to be expressed more strongly within the criteria.
‘‘We can’t just be throwing money at things that might have worked in the time before Covid, but actually might not be able to weather these new circumstances.’’ Paul said the annual Matariki fireworks display, which was likely to still take place, was an example of somewhere money could be better targeted.
‘‘What’s the point of having a fireworks display if people are literally getting thrown out of their homes and don’t have jobs and have to leave Wellington? ‘‘Do we need events that make people feel good, or give businesses the tools they need to adapt to the new circumstances?’’ Wellington Mayor Andy Foster said the fund was intended to be flexible, and being too prescriptive at this stage would be unhelpful. ‘‘There would be a danger of us narrowing things down before we have information about what opportunities there might be.’’
Several technology companies had been included in the initial funding group, including the Rippl contact tracing app, Foster said.
‘‘More of those kinds of investments are absolutely allowed for in the future.’’
Events that had received funding needed money to save jobs short-term and provide certainty for future events, he said. ‘‘Cancelling some of these events would create immediate job losses in our most vulnerable sectors.’’