Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to call on the government to step in and help our artists and musicians, who are feeling the real brunt of the cost-of-living crisis. We've just heard the urgent and breaking news that Splendour in the Grass has been cancelled. This is another festival in Australia which is unable to go ahead because of all the associated pressures and costs. It is another festival in a long list of those that have had to be cancelled by organisers over only the last few months: Groovin the Moo, the Falls Festival, the Vintage Vibes Festival, ValleyWays, the Coastal Jam Festival and the Pitch Festival, and, of course, we know Dark Mofo has had its troubles.

They've all been cancelled, delayed or disrupted, and while people may think that this is just some type of entertainment that can fall by the wayside, I want to remind the government and the Minister for the Arts, Mr Burke, that arts and music are such an important part of what makes life great. It is also an important part of our economy. As festival organisers have to make the hard decisions, day after day, week after week, month after month, to cancel these events, they do so knowing that they're putting thousands of people out of work, that they're keeping money from flowing into small and regional communities right across the country and that that injection into those local economies is just not going to come.

We know that we are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, and when we're dealing with the struggles of families and individuals who are weighing up whether they can afford their skyrocketing rents, their inflated supermarket prices and their increased mortgage payments, we know that people just don't have the extra cash to buy that ticket to a music festival, no matter how much they would like to. But this is about people's jobs and we need the government to step in and support the music and festival industry urgently. Because of today's decision to cancel Splendour in the Grass, thousands of people will be out of work. Thousands of people—artists who were involved in this festival or hospitality workers who would have kept the festival going—will be scratching around, thinking about how they're going to pay their bills. Tourism and accommodation industry workers will be dumbfounded by this decision today. It is another festival biting the dust because there is not enough support from the government.

I've written to the minister about this and about the previous festivals being cancelled. I have urged the minister to put in this year's budget a relief package or an assistance package for our music industry and our festivals industry. It is an important part of our culture, an important part of our regional and rural economies and an important part of our overall national economy. Musicians are workers too. Artists' jobs are real jobs. The tradies that put these festivals together need certainty. The hospitality workers deserve to know when their next pay cheque will come. And, when times are tough, Australians young and old know how important the arts are to us as a community to get us through. The festivals and the musicians were there for us during the bushfires, they were there during the floods and they copped the brunt during COVID. It's time we gave them a hand now.