NSW Police say they charged for services at special events to recover costs, to make more police available for duty, and help ensure that normal policing services to the community could be maintained. Manpower charges for officers for special events were $144 per hour inclusive of GST.

Greens MP Cate Faehrmann has branded the NSW police user charge figures as “completely over the top”, as the state’s Arts Minister John Graham accepted they were out of step with the rest of the country.

During budget estimates in the NSW parliament on Tuesday, Faehrmann gave the example of one unnamed touring festival. In NSW last year, the festival attracted 35,000 attendees, and in Victoria 40,000. Victoria charged $53,228 for medical services including ambulance, and NSW charged $48,155. In terms of police, Victoria charged less than $10,000 to NSW’s $120,465, a 12-fold increase.

“Is that fair?” she asked Graham.

“I don’t know if it’s fair. It’s certainly of concern to me that we are so out of step with Victoria,” the minister responded. “We’re examining why this is occurring, and I don’t want to jump ahead of the process.

“It is one of the things potentially driving festivals out of NSW, and it is a tougher environment as a result. I can guarantee that it’s under close examination, and it’s an area where the government is looking to act at these festival charges in general.”

Victoria and NSW are the nation’s key markets for festivals, having about an equal number of more than 100 festivals each per year and representing more than half the market.

Wilson said there was no justification for the huge difference in costs across states.

“I think you will see festivals cancelling and or a taking year off more so than a national touring festival skipping a NSW leg,” he said. “And history shows that it is difficult to bring something back once they cancel.”

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Wilson said the industry was seeking a commitment from the NSW government to inject cash to help them weather the next couple of seasons, or the establishment of an insurance scheme to protect promoters from future losses.

“Promoters are carrying a lot of debt and loss from the last couple of years, and to ask them to carry more is not viable; there is no risk appetite to keep running at a loss,” he said.

The latest event to adjust their dates is the Wanderer Festival, on the far south coast, which has announced it will move from an annual to a biennial event in 2025, skipping this year.

Festival organisers had a meeting with representatives of Sound NSW last Friday, at which they warned that festival operators were facing the worst economic conditions in a decade because of pandemic impacts on reserves, the rising costs of technical workers and supplies, and changed ticket-buying patterns among a young generation of music lovers.

Graham accepted that festival viability was a national issue, but a particular problem in NSW. A review of the music festival act would be released in coming months with recommendations to “keep people safe but also make sure that festivals are viable”.

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