15 January:
The NSW coroner held an inquest into the deaths of five people of suspected drug overdoses at music festivals across the state.
The inquest will also focus on the deaths of 2 other teenagers at Defqon.1 on September 15; another who died after attending the Knockout Games of Destiny on December 9; and another following the Lost Paradise festival on December 29.
Earlier in January, NSW Labor leader Michael Daley said his party would ‘explore the possibility of pill testing’ if it won the March election.
Source: SBS
THIS was Daley’s response – a suite of initiatives to revive the music industry, after the poorly thought-through Lock-out laws imposed by Baird. Whilst some of Daley’s initiatives are laudable, the presentation as a ‘war on music’ is utterly detestable.
See how Labor’s ‘official music policy is introduced:
NSW Labor leader Michael Daley will launch its official music policy this afternoon in Sydney.
He said, ‘NSW has lost hundreds of venues and thousands of jobs since the NSW Liberals and Nationals were elected in 2011’.
‘Now due to (their) actions, we are losing music festivals as well’.
‘Labor will put an end to the war on music’.
Including:
* Streamlining the licensing process for music festivals and allow organisers with an established record to obtain multi-year approvals for festivals.
Comment: The licensing process was introduced by the current government. Labor never ‘streamlines’ anything – they always add more red-tape. There is no SPECIFIC initiative here which will ‘revive’ music festivals and also curtail the drug risk to young people. Daley’s policy – in relation to music festivals – will just be more of the same.
And pill-testing isn’t mentioned. Pill-testing proponents will assume that Labor will introduce pill-testing. All that Daley said was that he would ‘explore the possibility’. Now he doesn’t even mention it.
And now he uses ‘hyperbowl’ headlines to exploit the tragedy of the drug-overdose deaths.
Berejiklian isn’t conducting a ‘war on music’, she is trying to save young people’s lives. She may not have the perfect strategy or all the right answers but at least she is honest about it. Daley has NO BASIS to claim that she is conducting a ‘war on music’. He should apologise.
Source: TheMusicNetwork.com