Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Deputy Speaker, absolutely everybody in this place can agree that events are incredibly important to Tasmania, and we have some fantastic events in this state. Some events are run by Events Tasmania – and Mr Fairs spoke of some of them – such as The Tasmanian Masters Games. They are absolutely tremendous. I am very proud that my dad is a champion in badminton for multiple years as a part of the Masters Games.
There is also the garlic festival at Koonya, down towards the Tasman. What a great event that is, which gets fantastic media coverage. There is Steamfest, up in Sheffield. Kentish really comes alive, and I am a proud sponsor of that event as well; ECHO, on the east coast; Lightwave, which happens down in Nubeena; and Beaker Street.
These are really great festivals that bring together our dark skies, the light, the aurora, -these fantastic phenomenons that we have in Tasmania – things that are easily appreciated and accessed when it is a little bit darker later in the year in winter, which helps diversify our visitation into that off season and the shoulder season as well.
We have festivals such as the Unconformity, and what tremendous value that has brought to the west coast for part of the shoulder season. It has really highlighted the value of the arts for our regional communities, and why we have to see ongoing investment into sectors such as the arts, which is going to complement our events sector as well. Events investment alone cannot be put into a silo.
There are some events that have dropped off the radar in recent years – for example, Falls Festival. We know that Dark MOFO has been scaled back as well. These are some examples of where the government could be doing more, and where certainly the crossbench, and I am sure the Labor Party, want to be able to hold this government to account and have a say where there is room for improvement.
This motion also talks about the gig economy. I am certain that is more about a festival gig, but I wanted to talk about the the other kind of ‘gig’ in the digital age. I spoke about that a little this morning during the matter of public importance when talking about the Cygnet Folk Festival. Here we had a fantastic event where Tasmanian businesses were losing money. They could not take EFTPOS cards because, with the number of people there, the digital connectivity went down. It was the same thing at the garlic festival – I know Ms Burnet, the member for Clark, had firsthand experience – where businesses could not accept EFTPOS payment and people there did not have cash.
Ms Butler – And the Campbell Town Show.
Ms BADGER – The Campbell Town Show. We all know Agfest is a bit notorious. We have to be investing in other aspects to raise our events up to the best possible standard for 2025.
One of the key attractions that people come to Tasmania for – yes, they come here for events, but they also come here to be immersed in nature. Nature is part of the great Tasmanian brand that Mr Fairs spoke about. When we have government policies that are intent on destroying the very thing that people are coming here to see, it is heartwrenching that some organisers of events have to make a decision to no longer go ahead with those events, such as the Panama Festival. Organisers there have announced that they will not be running their absolutely celebrated music festival in 2026 because they are concerned that forests surrounding that festival site have been flagged for logging, and they are now putting their efforts into campaigning to protecting that forest instead of running the event. Where is the certainty here coming from the government? People are going there to be immersed in nature as well as that festival-based event.
The motion has some statistics. During the 2023-2024 financial year, more than 112,000 visitors travelled to Tasmania to attend events supported by Events Tasmania. That is a very impressive statistic. What is also an impressive statistic is that in the year ending September 2024, 65 per cent of all visitors to Tasmania – that is 852,000 people – took part in the outdoors, in nature. Around 40 per cent of all visitors to this state visited our national parks. Where is the investment equally into those, which people equally come here to see? We do not celebrate them enough. The Greens certainly do, and we would like to see more of that from the other side of the House.
The motion calls for us to back investment into exclusively the events sector. We all want to see investment into events, but it is everything else around it that has to be taken into consideration as well. There are so many other ventures that the government could also be investing in when we are trying to get visitors to come to this state, particularly in the shoulder and the offseason, to spread that economic dollar the whole year round so the people who were running tourism businesses can have that bit more certainty for 12 months of the year. Investing in things such as protecting our dark skies. The communities are doing it, this Liberal government is not. Bird tourism brings an awful lot of money into the economy in other states. We need to be doing a lot more here in Tasmania. We could be celebrating our tall trees, not cutting down the forests around the Panama Festival.
I have one amendment to propose to this motion and that is because, yes, we all support unanimously in this place investment into events, of course we do, but that is not just investment from the Tasmanian Government, we also want investment from the federal government. We also want large investment from the private sector as well. And be it exclusively this Tasmanian government, the Liberal government, it is not really restrained in the motion as it is currently written. But certainly, the Greens and I expect the crossbench and the Labor Party need to actually be able to scrutinise all events as they come up and where that funding is actually going to. By putting through this motion as it currently is, we do not just want to unanimously support everything that this Tasmanian Government is investing into events.
Deputy Speaker, I move that the motion be amended by omitting from clause 2, the Tasmanian government, which means that the new clause and I am now speaking to the amendment very quickly will read: ‘back investment into our critical events sector and provide ongoing support to ensure balanced events portfolio across seasons and regions to support our tourism and hospitality sectors, drive economic growth and continue job prosperity.’
It does not substantially change the principle of the motion that Mr Fairs has brought on, because I have no doubt that absolutely everybody in this place supports that principle.
