Thursday, 14 November 2019

 Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (10:00): I would like to say a big thankyou to Gladys Berejiklian and the New South Wales government for their contributions to the Victorian economy. They have just scored another giant own goal by driving music festivals out of their state or driving them underground. This should act as a warning to those in government who want to prohibit events or activities they see as unsafe or undesirable. When you ban something, you are not getting rid of the thing you do not like; you are just moving it out of your control. We see this in the opportunity around pill testing. Victoria is maybe creeping towards it, but we are leaps and bounds ahead of New South Wales, which flat out rejects the coronial findings calling for it. The no-testing approach sickens me. We could save lives, but instead we want kids to die to serve as a warning to others to ‘just say no’. It is morally bankrupt.

I would like to invite music festival organisers to my home town of Wodonga. Gateway Island, right on the border, is the perfect location for a festival. We have a thriving service and logistics industry that can support your events. Subsonic, Burning Seed, Strawberry Fields: call me, we can organise a hook-up. Swipe left to nanny state New South Wales and swipe right to slightly less nanny state Victoria. The Liberal Democrats look forward to more money coming into Victoria courtesy of music festivals, and we hope to make the state more festival friendly as time goes by.