Letter to The Dominion-Post, 10 June, 2011.

Keywords: Governance;

Lacking the impetus to chase hard stories, the ‘Dominion-Post’ ran a survey of government departments last Tuesday based on the rankings of an arbitrary panel. At the bottom was the Ministry of Culture and Heritage scoring 3.18/7. This reflected that the panel did not contain the many who visit our museums, galleries and historic places; watch public broadcasting and films; read literature; appreciate art; attend ballet, theatrical or musical performances; follow our history; depend upon Te Ara the online encyclopaedia (including tens of thousands who visited it after the Christchurch earthquake as the source of reliable information), all funded and/or supported by the Ministry.

An equally arbitrary  survey of this group of ordinary New Zealanders scored the panel at 1.097/7. They were not asked to score your paper, but it would have been much higher given your coverage of arts, culture and heritage. Thankyou.

Brian Easton (Kelburn)