Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

But I was staring at Brett Graham's Takarangi Spiral, that is an animation that you can see online.

And it was part of the Tainui exhibition that came to Te Papa quite a long time ago now, eh? It was sitting up above Uenuku.

and anyway it spins.

So I was watching the video and seeing it spinning and so I was thinking about the direction of time, the arrow of time and then

Hello and welcome to the Deep Sea Podcast, and welcome to one of our DecoStop episodes.

I'm Dr. Tom Lindley, Curator of Fishes at the National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongawera.

And in our DecoStop episodes, we gaze into the abyss, and the abyss gazes back at us.

So this is the human side of deep sea science and technology.

But there is a bigger issue sitting underneath the surface.

that this sits in the context of, one could also say, who pays for the upkeep of New Zealand's cultural institutions and how? Other museums, including Te Papa, much of the funding comes from ratepayers, taxpayers.

But as we look at local government reform, 4% rate caps, do we need a rethink? I'm joined now by Museums Aotearoa Chief Exec Janine Parkinson.

Tēnā koe, Janine.

What are the challenges they're facing and how are they funding the work?

I think it's a great example of showing us how the balance is not quite right and for how we're going to care for our national cultural institutions.

At the moment, there's actually a group of metropolitan museums, like the War Memorial Museum, that are not national entities like Te Papa, but they are nationally significant.

Kind of like those nationally significant roads we hear about, they end up falling and their costs end up falling on ratepayers.

We're definitely not encouraging it at all.

Next minute, Te Papa gets hit.

That's off your headline section, Novus Glass.

Novus Glass have local branches nationwide.

They'll even handle your insurance claim.

Is there anything like worth that amount of money in Te Papa?

Heaps.

Really? Straight up.

And the other thing that we've got to bear in mind is tourism is huge in New Zealand.

And we've just seen Te Papa open a big exhibition that will be on for quite a few years on Māori carvings.

because many international visitors, that's what they want to see.

So I think also it's enhancing the landscape, and it all goes towards giving tourists a good experience.

Senior doctors say they're struggling to cope in overcrowded emergency departments.

Their union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, has been holding its annual conference at Wellington's Te Papa Museum.

Delegate Tanya Wilton, who works at Hutt Hospital's emergency department, says it's disheartening when even the basics can't be provided.

I've cared for a person that I know and respect who's in their late 90s who spent 48 hours in a corridor on a trolley.