Music festivals are set to be the focus of the New South Wales state government with a debate about the disallowances of current music festival regulations to take place tomorrow.
Back in August, a report called for the music festival regulations to be disallowed by parliament, "given the impact they have had on the national music scene".
“These regulations have had a significant impact on both the NSW and the national music scene,” said Labor Shadow Minister for Music & the Night Time Economy, John Graham said today.
“We don’t support the current music festival licensing scheme. We accept the view of artists, festival operators, and local councils that this is driving music events out of NSW.”
“The Government chose to take a deliberately high conflict approach when this scheme was announced. We don’t support the creation of an ‘extreme risk hit-list' of festivals that 'might be shut down'. That was how this scheme was described.”
“Labor would like to see the music festival industry and the Government work together to implement a new regime in time for the upcoming summer festival season. We offer our bipartisan support for such an approach.”
A formal investigation into NSW’s controversial festival license changes took place in August, with a Regulation Committee hearing from a number of members of the music industry including Splendour In The Grass promoter Jessica Ducrou, Live Performance Australia's Evelyn Richardson, Fuzzy Managing Director Adelle Robinson, Australian Festival Association's Julia Robinson and Live Music Office's John Wardle.
The debate is set to take place from 10am tomorrow.
