Bluesfest Director Takes Aim At Mike Baird At Aus Music Week: 'He's Gotta Go!'

Bluesfest director Peter Noble lashed out at the recently announced Sounds Australia funding cuts and Australia's visa free increases at yesterday's The Keys To Music Industry Success panel at Australian Music Week. 

Sitting alongside panellists Keith Welsh of Icehouse and musician Diesel, when asked about the demise of innerwest Sydney's once-diverse music scene, Noble retorted, "I think the best way to get live music back in the inner west is to get rid of the Liberal Party," met with cheers in the audience.

"They have cut funding to just about every arts funding — and if you're Indigenous, forget about it. Then they changed the visa fees … We're trying to get new artists booked in this country — THEY have to pay the fees to come in and showcase! Imagine if it was Germany — no visa fees, no tax, [they're like], 'Come to our country to perform, because it's called culture'. This is what we do, we present culture." 

This is not the first time Noble has spoken out about the upcoming visa increases — he told The Music last month that "it will be the public and people who work in the creative industries who will be affected negatively. This is a bad decision. It should be reviewed. It should be withdrawn".

Noble also called out to Sounds Australia's Millie Millgate in the audience, making reference to their recent funding cuts.

"Sounds Australia — is Millie here? — she's had two-thirds of their funding knocked off. She's going, 'There's only three of us in the office anyway. Can we afford to showcase at SXSW next year? No.'"

Likening the lockout laws to the United States' Prohibition laws, Noble said, "Guys, please, this is serious. It's not just happening in one area, it's happening across arts funding. They're cutting our major body for Australian artists overseas. Increasing the costs of visas will mean less tours — at the lower end, not the higher end!

"Thank you to anyone who goes out there and stands up and gets involved in protest, but Mike Baird's gotta go! The Labor woman in Queensland's gotta go."