Key events
Election campaign continues over Easter
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The frenetic pace of the federal election campaign has slowed a gear or two over the Easter weekend.
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton will spend Easter Sunday in their respective hometowns of Sydney and Brisbane, after both attended Sydney’s Royal Easter Show on Saturday.
The Sunday morning political programs are running as usual, with employment minister, Murray Watt, up first on Sky News Agenda.
Watt is asked about Labor’s new pledge to enshrine penalty rates in law if the government wins on 3 May.
The Australian Retailers Association and others have asked the Fair Work Commission to vary the award, proposing some workers be given a 25% pay rise in return for giving up their penalty rates, overtime and other allowances.
We shouldn’t have a situation in Australia where big business can roll into the Fair Work Commission and demand that those penalty rates are removed.
The government passed multiple tranches of pro-worker industrial relations laws in the previous term, which business groups vehemently opposed.
Watt rejected suggestions Labor was “putting up barriers” to small businesses employing new staff.
We obviously support small businesses growing, and that’s why we’ve seen a record number of companies created over this term of office.
Easter’s Bluesfest: one of the festivals saved by lifeline funding
This long weekend’s Byron Bay Bluesfest is one of the New South Wales music festivals that received a lifeline from the Minns government after almost being felled by changes in ticket-buying behaviours, financial headwinds and insurance costs.
It is joined by Lost Paradise on the Central Coast, Your and Owls in Wollongong, Listen Out and Field Day in Sydney, which were collectively given $2.25m in emergency funding by the Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund, the state government revealed this morning.
The funding of up to $500,000 per festival is hoped will deliver a boost to the regional economies that support the industry and comes after the cancellations of Splendour in the Grass, Falls festival, Spilt Milk and Groovin’ the Moo.
John Graham, the minister for music and the night-time economy said the post-Covid era had been a “financial nightmare” for music festivals in NSW.
The government needed to step in to save the furniture, and the feedback is that this fund has helped some of these festivals survive.
The festival circuit a vital part of the live music industry which employs almost 15,000 people. It’s too important to lose, that’s why we’re backing festivals with emergency funding and reforms that bring down their costs.
With the lockouts under the previous Liberal government, the pandemic and then the cost-of-living crisis it’s been a really tough time for the music industry. That’s why we’re backing it in any way we can.
Applications for the fund’s second round ahead of the next summer festival season open on 1 May.
Good Morning
Daisy Dumas
Good morning and Easter greetings, readers. Welcome to today’s live news blog as the election campaign continues at much the same pace as usual. Let’s get cracking …
