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Chris Finlayson says there will never be enough money to make everybody happy in light of a damning review of the Film Commission.
The report, commissioned by the government and co-authored by Sir Peter Jackson and film academic David Court, recommends a major shake-up of the body responsible for funding and developing our film industry.
The Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Chris Finlayson, told TV ONE's Breakfast programme he agrees the commission needs a shake-up but that people need to understand there are limited funds.
"You have to do the best you can with the money you've got.
"I know from my experience in the arts outside parliament and having been the minister, there's never enough money and that's the way it is and you have to get on it."
He says he sees the report as more of a stocktake than a critique.
"I actually think the report is not so much damning, it's a very good stocktake of where we are after 30 years and he's got some very good suggestions."
He says Jackson realises there is limited funding and his report looks more at the commission's structural issues than the funding issues.
Finlayson says he is looking into the report's recommendation that the commission fund talent rather than being project-based.
The report says while the commission is critical to the industry, it fails to foster talent.
Jackson has been a long-time critic of the commission. Eight years ago he banned Film Commission executives from the premiere of The Two Towers because of bad blood.
The creator of Shortland Street, John Barnett of South Pacific Pictures, is another critic of the Film Commission.
"The report reflects the experience that a lot of people had for a period of time which I have to say has passed because there's been a change of chair and a change of chief executive," says Barnett.
Filmmaker Gaylene Preston, who just made Home by Christmas with commission funding, says she's had good experiences.
"The film commission doesn't have enough money to play with. What the Film Commission has had to do with so little money for so long is actually probably a small miracle," she says.
The commission distributes $27 million in government funding each year.
Jackson worked on the report free-of-charge, according to Finlayson.
