Page 219 - Constructing Craft

In 1979, in an attempt to increase government revenue and shift the revenue

balance towards the taxation of goods, Robert Muldoon, the Prime Minister and
Minister of Finance, requested that Treasury draw up a list of all the taxes that he
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could impose without having to go to Parliament for approval. Despite
constitutional concerns about taxation by executive order, the list was produced and

the Muldoon government imposed a ten per cent wholesale sales tax on all
tableware and a forty per cent tax on ‘decorative articles’. Products made by studio

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potters were included. Potters claimed that Tom Clark, the Managing Director of
Crown Lynn, had lobbied the government for the tax ‘to be applied to their output
[as well] arguing that as they were competing in the same market they should bear

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the same fiscal costs.’ The sales taxes applied to a range of crafts and there were
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many anomalies, but protest was most vociferous amongst studio potters because
many of them earned most of their income from their craft. By the 1970s potters

were becoming more organised and the issue presented them with a rallying point.
The protests, which included refusing to pay the tax, resulted in the setting up of an

interdepartmental committee to investigate sales taxes on craft activities in 1979.
The committee concluded that the tax would cost more to administer than it would

generate in income and recommended that only potters with a turnover of $50,000

or more be required to register for the tax.

Craft ‒ Booming or Vulnerable?

The politicisation of craftspeople in the late-1970s and 1980s grew out of necessity.
Craftspeople, often well educated and inclined towards alternative political views,

saw their way of life threatened. They began to emphasise the importance of
economic professionalism as a means of promoting their importance to the wider

community. However, craftspeople (and politicians) would offer differing
interpretations of the financial viability of craft ‒ stressing its strength or vulnerability

‒ depending on who was being lobbied. The issue also demonstrated that

craftspeople were being drawn in two different directions. To prove they were not
mere ‘hobbyists’ craftspeople had to show that they were financially successful.

However, by demonstrating economic success they became vulnerable to the
imposition of the revenue gathering policies of the government. The debates that

arose were peppered with statistics that showed how confused the protagonists had

Constructing Craft