Surviving Topp twin, Dame Lynda, stands by her public blast at the government’s arts budget cuts, saying she and her sister who died, Dame Jools, would never back down.
Through tears at last Thursday's Aotearoa Music Awards, Dame Lynda described her grief following the recent death of Dame Jools, while taking a chance to blast the government's "lousy" arts funding revealed earlier that day. She took aim at Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith, who sat in Auckland's Civic Theatre for the event, and she received a standing ovation with the music industry crowd.
Dame Lynda told RNZ's Checkpoint on Tuesday that her sister would want her to keep pushing the point that the arts deserved more.
“Jools and I have been activists for 40-odd years and there is no holding back," Dame Lynda said.
“When you feel passionate about something, and Jools and I were passionate about the arts for, you know, for so long, I think it's time that we stood up and said, you know, to the government, 'you have to acknowledge that the arts is something that you need to invest in'.”
Like most agencies in Budget 2026, the Ministry for Culture, Arts and Heritage had its baseline funding cut by 2 percent, with savings of $27 million over four years.
“Look at the artists that have made impacts in this country and globally," Dame Lynda said.
“So, yes, it's time to stand up and say to the government 'you need to be really clear on what you're doing here because you are not helping the arts, you are hindering them'.”
While that still meant $1.48 billion over four years for the industry, Dame Lynda said once sport, heritage and recreation took their cut, music and arts weren't left with much.
“That's what governments do, they go broadly, this is how much money we're putting into things.
“But when you strip it back, music gets absolutely a tiny, tiny bit of that.”
She said young artists in particular needed backing.
“Sometimes it only takes one small grant to let that artist rise up and then what happens is, and what's happened over the years, is those artists become big enough to look after themselves.”
She acknowledged times were tough and many in the country were struggling to put kai on the table, including young artists.
“And if you are a young artist trying to get ahead in the world, how much is it costing them to survive?”
Dame Lynda again said it was not fair the arts got a cut while the defence budget was boosted. She said services such as search and rescue and disaster relief were a good use of that budget, but it needed to be used for these causes and not war.
“Who is our enemy? That we would even consider buying, you know, weapons.”
Last week Minister Goldsmith responded to Dame Lynda’s comments at the awards saying it was the "same old cliché" of government criticism at the awards.
Goldsmith told RNZ he had no interest in "getting into a fight" with Dame Lynda, but rejected suggestions the coalition did not value the arts community.
