With numerous NSW festivals forced to cancel in recent months due to rising onsite police costs, it’s been revealed that state police is making more money than ever from its “user pays” program.
As SBS News reports, the NSW Police Force has earned $12,896,828 in revenue in seven months via the program, which allows them to provide events such as music festivals with officers.
Despite an annual increase - with 2016/17 earning NSW Police $16,722,564, while they took in $21,486,215 across 2017/18 - a spokesperson told SBS they did not profit from the “user pays” service.
Last November, Bohemian Beatfreaks music festival was forced to relocate from New South Wales to Queensland after being presented a $200,000 quote two weeks out from the event.
Festival organiser Eric Lamir-Pyke told SBS they were quoted $200,000 for “user pays” services, despite initially being told it would be around $16,000.
Also in November, Good Things festival in Sydney was quoted $71,112.37 by NSW Police, while Victoria Police quoted just $13,004.90 for the Melbourne event.
NSW events Mountain Sounds and PSYFARI were both forced to cancel in February, citing the state government as a reason.
The cancellations led to a number of peak industry bodies speaking out against NSW’s new festival policy and protests.
