Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise firstly today to echo my community's concerns about the implementation of the New South Wales Liberal-National government's rushed new guidelines for music festivals. This of course will mean increased costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and presents a real threat to the long-term viability of some festivals. In my region, on the New South Wales North Coast, we have a number of nationally and internationally recognised festivals, like the Byron Bluesfest, Splendour in the Grass and of course the Falls Festival as well as many, many more.

The director of Byron Bay's iconic Bluesfest, Peter Noble, says he will be forced to move the event out of New South Wales, stating that these new guidelines from the New South Wales Liberal-National government would put the festival out of business. This is a very serious issue that will have a major impact.

The Byron Bay Bluesfest is in its 30th year and has been inducted into the New South Wales Tourism Awards Hall of Fame—a remarkable achievement. The fact is the Bluesfest provides, firstly, an important music and cultural event, and it also provides a massive economic boost to our region. It employs thousands of people, and the flow-on benefits in terms of tourism in our region mean millions of dollars.

Peter Noble has recently written to the New South Wales government and raised his concerns directly, but the Berejiklian government just isn't listening—they're so out of touch. It's only New South Wales Labor that will save live music and festivals in New South Wales.

I've also recently met with representatives from the Stop Adani Byron Shire Group and the Stop Adani Tweed Shire Group. I regularly met with these groups in the past, and they continue to raise their concerns, and indeed the concerns of many in the community, about the potential impact of the Adani mine. At this recent meeting, the group presented me with their latest petition, which contains 3,904 signatures against the mine. These were collected by the local Stop Adani Group and are addressed to the current Prime Minister, the member for Cook, and also the previous Prime Minister, the former member for Wentworth.

Over the past three years, I've publicly raised in many forums my personal opinion, which is I'm opposed to the Adani coalmine going ahead, and share the community's concerns about the potential environmental harm that could follow on to the Great Barrier Reef and other areas. As I've also made clear to the local Stop Adani group, there are various views throughout the community and the country about the Adani mine. It's also important to acknowledge that. So, I've made a commitment to the group that, as their local federal MP, I'd raise their concerns in parliament and present their petitions. So, I now present their petitions to the Chamber. Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to present them.

Leave granted.

The petition s read as follows:

The petition was unavailable at the time of publishing