With all the wailing about saving a beach but no suggestions about how to actually provide for the corporate welfare for the developers who have their hands out it rests with the Whale to provide some alternative funding options.
The thought of going to the ballet probably never enters the minds of most New Zealanders. It is just legacy entertainment technology that would be better off left to die a natural death. Or they could take a lead from Homer Simpson, and make it appeal to the average person in the street.
From the latest available published accounts for the Royal NZ Ballet.
For the 2009 year.
Ministry for Culture and Heritage funding – $3,959,000
Sponsorship and donations – $2,010,000
Box office revenue – $2,631,000
Total Revenue - $8,600,000
On these figures the Royal NZ Ballet bludges $1.50 for every dollar they raise in ticket sales. That’s right, you and I pay $1.50 for every $1.00 some liberal elite wanker pays to sit and watch ballet.
The only thing possible to say in their defence is at least they aren’t as big a bludgers as the NZSO. Or for that matter Outrageous Fortune, the fortune of which was ours spent on a few actors that arent good enough to make it on the global stage or they would have buggered off long ago.
If Labour wants John Key to save a beach that the rich people promoting the saving of could buy outright with their spare change then I suggest they start picking the pockets of the liberal elite and start cutting out their entertainment in the form of the NZSO and Royal NZ Ballet.
In tight financial times there are choices to make about what is essential and what isn’t. A symphony orchestra and a ballet company certainly aren’t essential services for a government to pay for. Think about all the beaches that could be saved and the hip operations that could be provided if we simply ditched these anachronistic pillars of a pretention.
