Ministry for Culture and Heritage Annual Report 2006
Chief Executive
In 2006 New Zealand is a nation standing tall, enjoying a renaissance in its arts, culture and heritage. The government’s recent announcement that enhancing national identity is one of its key priorities for the next decade confirms the growing role of culture and heritage in our national life, and is adding fresh impetus to the Ministry’s work.
Our varied and innovative projects are a reflection of 21st century New Zealand as we work to support government objectives, and to serve the evolving cultural needs, interests and aspirations of New Zealanders.
A key feature of this work is the fast changing technology which provides us with unprecedented opportunities to deliver culture and heritage products in different and increasingly effective formats.
This can be seen in the range of the Ministry’s ‘digital’ activities over the past year, including the completion of the second theme of Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand; the launch of a platform for free-to-air Digital TV; the development of the cultural portal project, NZLive.com; and new additions to the Ministry’s NZHistory.net.nz site. Digital technology also enables us to provide ‘virtual access’ to a number of other Ministry projects, such as the moving panoramic images of the New Zealand Memorial in London which can be viewed on the Ministry’s website.
In keeping with this trend towards digital delivery of cultural content, this year the Ministry is delivering its Annual Report in a different format. Public accountability for the resources with which we are entrusted is something we take seriously. So too is the responsibility to deliver value for money. Therefore, rather than producing a large, glossy printed report, our key means of publicly accounting for our work in 2005/06 is through a ‘Year in Review’ on our website. This provides a dynamic overview of the Ministry’s key achievements for the year and links to further detailed information about our activities across the Ministry’s websites.
While this simplified printed report meets the statutory requirements and provides basic information about the Ministry’s delivery against its agreed outputs, I urge you to have a look at our digital report at www.mch.govt.nz/about/year-in-review.html to get a real feel for what we have achieved over the last year, and for our ongoing work to support and promote New Zealand’s culture and heritage.