Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My home town of Gympie is the true home of Australian country music. Sorry, Barnaby Joyce! The Australian Institute of Country Music, in Gympie, fosters emerging Australian talent, songwriters and performers, who get the opportunity to then strut their stuff on the biggest stage in Australian country music, the Gympie Music Muster. What started in a paddock in 1982 is now a massive fundraiser and festival, returning more than $20 million to not-for-profit community groups since it started. An entire town of over 44,000 people emerge on Amamoor when the festival is on. Over $350,000 was donated to community groups just last year, but the Gympie Music Muster needs government support to upgrade facilities such as the sewerage, water and electricity so they can keep going. Their structures—especially the toilet blocks and the iconic main stage, fencing and campgrounds—are in disrepair and need major upgrades to cater for the growing festival. Some desperately needed funding would allow these improvements to the festival precinct and allow the muster to continue supporting Australia's best home-grown talent.

I invite the Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, to put on his RMs and his akubra and join us for a Bundy rum and a bit of bootscooting at the true home of country music, the Gympie Music Muster.