With a sigh of relief, Bluesfest was a success. Yippie!
And the weather was splendid (It’s been raining constantly otherwise for years, it seems).
Director Peter Noble, his crew, and all the vollies again put on a great event – it’s not just the best music sourced from around the globe that makes it iconic, but putting on such an event requires highly tuned organisational skills.
And lots of experience.
As most local small business know, the area is really in need of a boost, especially given the exit of Splendour and Falls and sale of the North Byron Parklands in Yelgun.
The NSW government and federal Greens each have a festival policy – see page 4.
One is currently being rolled out at a state level by Labor, while the other is a federal Greens plan to woo local creatives with a trial for a living wage for artists, along with loads of tax incentives to foster the festival and live music scene.
Fun fact – former Labor PM Paul Keating once floated the idea of a living wage for artists, which is something France does quite well. Yet Keating was booed for the idea by the non-creatives.
Like many of his grand policies, it sank as the long, uncreative and boring Howard years subsequently took hold, and wrecked the housing market.
Moral hazard
The thing about protectionist policies – in other words – propping up sectors that would normally fail under ‘free market’ conditions – is that it can potentially become a ‘moral hazard’.
This means that businesses or industries may take excessive risks or operate inefficiently, knowing that the government will rescue them if things go wrong.
Bank bailouts, subsidies for fossil fuel corporations are all moral hazards, yet those who defend them and administrate them (the governing class) argue they are essential services.
They believe the world would collapse unless we, the taxpayer, propped up the one percent’s enormous, unprecedented profits.
What sort of society is being engineered when governments make all of the private sector reliant on grants and handouts?
Is it state-run corporate-communism?
When governments become deeply involved in funding and managing sectors that struggle, it risks moving away from a democratic role and becomes all-powerful.
A concentration of power is never a good thing, ever. It leads to reduced accountability, and the suppression of dissenting voices.
Yet there are times when protectionism is vital.
During Covid in the early 2020s, the federal and state governments (Liberal PM Morrison and Liberal NSW Premier Berejiklian) wrecked the arts and academic sector.
It appeared on purpose, and even personal, considering other sectors were protected. Many artists relied upon cash jobs, and therefore were ineligible for JobKeeper as they could not prove their income.
So now, are artists supposed to feel grateful that there are grants to keep them in a job?
You would assume the bankers and miners are happy about their protections and tax incentives.
Whatever the answer is, it’s not providing governments with even more power over us.
Hans Lovejoy, editor
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