Premier Minns throws live music under the bus
NSW Premier Chris Minns’ yesterday attack on a modest proposal to support small music festivals pits communities against each other in a divisive, dog-whistle statement that should alarm anyone who cares about live music in this state, says Greens MP and music and night-time economy spokesperson, Cate Faehrmann.
When asked yesterday whether the government would back a recommendation from the Australian Festival Association, put to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Live Music, to establish a small grants program of up to $250,000 for independent festivals, Premier Minns responded by asking whether nurses, teachers and police officers should be "tipping in their pockets to subsidise music festivals in Byron Bay."
"Is the Premier now saying that governments shouldn't support arts and music? Because that’s exactly what this statement implies. And if so, he should say so plainly rather than hiding behind a populist attack on festival-goers and the communities that depend on live music,” said Ms Faehrmann.
“NSW Labor has spent years claiming the mantle of the party that 'saved live music'. That claim is now in tatters.
Labor's $3.25 million Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund, already criticised for funnelling support exclusively to large-scale festivals with capacities of 15,000 or more, left smaller, community-based festivals out in the cold. The Australian Festival Association came to the Parliamentary Inquiry asking for a modest, targeted grant of up to $250,000 to help those left behind.
"Labor can no longer claim it supports live music when it has a Premier willing to pit ordinary people against support for the arts. This is exactly the kind of divisive politics we don't need."
“The Premier’s selective outrage over taxpayer spending is a bit galling for the Northern Rivers community. Perhaps people in Byron Bay, and right across regional NSW, might reasonably ask why they're subsidising $915 million on the Parramatta Powerhouse Museum.
“Live music isn’t a luxury. It employs tens of thousands of people, it brings people and communities together and it provides a massive economic boost to towns and cities and of course the entire state.
“Live music is in crisis and deserves serious, considered policy responses, not cheap political point-scoring from the Premier. I’m calling on him to issue a retraction today,” said Ms Faehrmann.