Ministers ‘Too Busy’ to Attend Events Survival Forum

Media release – Tasmanian Agricultural Shows, 11 November 2021

Tasmanian Events Survival: Weekend Forum Cancelled

Ministers too busy to attend

The Tasmanian Government has proposed talks tomorrow, Friday, with the state’s 23 agricultural show societies, a day before show representatives were to meet in an open, public forum to discuss their survival in the face of often illogical and contradictory health restrictions.

The forum was set to occur on Saturday (Nov 13), drawing representatives from all over the state. But the government says invited ministers can’t attend, and has instead proposed talks with health officials tomorrow (Nov 12).

Government ministers, including the Premier, the Deputy Premier, the Health Minister, and the head of Public Health, had all been invited to the forum in an effort to develop a solution so that agricultural shows could proceed next year in a COVID-safe and financially sustainable manner. Other event organisers were also to attend.

However, the agricultural shows’ peak body has been advised that ministers are not available on Saturday. They have advised they are pre-occupied with border re-opening issues.

The President of Tasmanian Agricultural Shows, Scott Gadd, said agricultural shows would still approach the meeting with government officials tomorrow in good faith.

“We need to resolve this issue before the new show year commences, if some shows are to survive following two years of cancellations,” he said. “We attempted to do exactly this in December 2020 but didn’t get anywhere. As a result, only seven of Tasmania’s 23 annual shows could proceed in 2021, and a raft of other events also fell over.

“There’s a great deal of frustration over the complexity and slowness of achieving COVID-safe event status, and inconsistencies in how local events are being treated compared to national events. An AFL match is given a cap of 10,000 people in Tasmania, but the Hobart Show, the Launceston Show, and the Burnie Show are restricted to just 5,000 people on-site at any one time.

“The Falls Festival, Launceston’s Festivale and the Hobart Summer Festival are just recent examples of how Tasmania’s health restrictions are regulating local events out of existence”.

The supply chain for agricultural shows – such as entertainers and staging providers –are also struggling to survive. Tasmanian Agricultural Shows will take a number of proposals to Friday’s talks:

• crippling crowd caps
• the complexity of COVID-safe plans
• the timely processing of approvals
• and consistency across the events spectrum.

At tomorrow’s meeting agricultural show organisers will also be asking for details from health authorities of what restrictions will be put in place for any Ashes cricket match that might eventuate in Tasmania.

Will they be the same strict restrictions as Health now imposes on the struggling local events industry, or will an international cricket match be subject to a different set of standards?

“Tomorrow’s talks are a last chance for many Tasmanian events. We are saddened that Government ministers are too busy to attend and meet with constituents from all over the state this weekend. But with good will, we can hopefully come to a workable relationship with health officials that provides a continuing safe COVID environment at shows while also allowing shows – and other events – to proceed in a financially sustainable manner.”