As if festival and concert promoters weren’t already feeling the squeeze from a competitive market as Australia’s live music industry experiences a dip in revenue and attendance, new accusations have surfaced that suggest that Police are price gouging promoters for providing officers and security at music events.

A group of Australia’s biggest concert promoters, led by Chugg Entertainment, is apparently ‘secretly lobbying’ the NSW government over the costs of having Police – often a mandatory presence – at music events, claiming they are being plundered by increasing Police fees which result in higher costs allegedly being passed onto the consumer’s ticket price.

According to a report from Fairfax Media, Aussie event promoters went off the record to say that police are to blame for the need to raise ticket prices.

The news of the supposed Chugg Entertainment-led lobbying surfaced through Fairfax‘s investigation into Police invoices shows that revenue from user-pay events has increased from $5.5 million in 2007-2008 to $8.5 million in the last financial year. The user-pay policy, first introduced by former NSW Premier Bob Carr, allows the hiring of off-duty uniformed police for private events, such as music concerts and music festivals, allowing for officers to claim bonus pay for extra-hours work.

The push against the NSW government reportedly began after Mumford & Sons’ visit to the regional town of Dungog saw promoters footed with a $30,000 police invoice to manage the 1,800 strong crowd; the same fee that promoters were charged for inner-city officers to police a Coldplay arena concert that brought 50,000 people.

Police were told to expect a crowd three times the size for the Dungog concert by Mumford & Sons, with squads of police monitoring the five-hour show. The next day, for the one-day Gentlemen of the Road mini-festival, Police charged $60,000 for the event that drew 14,000 people. “This is not about profit, it’s about public safety – if there aren’t enough police to do the job we need to get them there, secure accommodation, and that all costs money.”

Police Association President Scott Weber defended the price difference by saying that rural events were more costly under the user-pay scheme because of the expenses involved with getting police to the event. “This is not about profit, it’s about public safety – if there aren’t enough police to do the job we need to get them there, secure accommodation, and that all costs money,” says Weber. The hiring of police is considered compulsory if it is believed that an event poses a risk to public order.

Fairfax‘s report indicates that user-pay pricing varied “significantly,” between officers that charged up to $100 per hour, receiving time-and-a-half for duty, while head office claims the rest. A NSW police spokesperson rejected the claims, saying the user pay police was “all very transparent… Of course you’re going to get people who are upset because they have to pay.”

Of Mumford & Sons’ Dungog show, a Police representative added: “A significant policing presence was required to ensure the safety and security of [10,000] campers and concert-goers.” By contrast however, Parramatta police charged the smaller fee of $10,000 to provide a presence for the 11,000 punters at Harvest Festival.

Other examples of hiked police fees cited include the mammoth Soundwave Festival, claiming that the Sydney leg jumped from $70,000 in 2012, where Police arrested 20 festival-goers, to costing more than $100,00 for this year’s event, which had no arrests.

Meanwhile, the now-deceased Centennial Park-hosted V Festival saw police costs rise from $40,000 in 2007 to more than $100,000 two years later, while the ticket sales for the event dropping from 35,00 to 29,00 between the two editions before its cancellation.

A Police Integrity Commission report from 2012 found that the overtime lure of user-pay Police duty was fraught with “integrity hazards and corruption risks,” while Police Minister Michael Gallacher indicated they had received complaints about officers falsely claiming user-pay work and changing shifts and rosters to take on the extra work, adding they had begun working in collaboration with concert promoters and the Transport and Tourism Forum to “examine ways to streamline processes related to user pays to improve efficiencies.”

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