Poor performances

I had planned to write this week’s column about a Hungarian family who had been given 42 days to leave the country by immigration officials.

- CHRIS FINLAYSON

I was planning to complain about the inadequacy of Immigration NZ when I learnt that Associate Minister for Immigration Phil Twyford had exercised his discretion to allow them to stay. That was a sensible decision and I applaud the minister for allowing a hardworking and enterprising family to remain here.

Fortunately, there’s another topic that also deserves attention. Creative New Zealand is continuing to make stupid decisions that the public finds infuriating.

I served on the arts board of Creative New Zealand (the funding side of the organisation) from 1995 to 2001, and was chair between 1998 and 2001. That was an exciting time as we went to the Venice Biennale for the first time, established a Berlin residency for writers, and did other interesting projects, all with very little money.