News

Everyone’s Getting Worked Up About Sydney’s NYE Fireworks For No Real Reason

Sydney's NYE fireworks are unlikely to be cancelled, despite public protest.

by Hannah Story  30 December 2019
Sydney NYE Fireworks will go ahead

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City Of Sydney Council has no intention of cancelling the annual NYE fireworks over Sydney Harbour, and people are pissed either way.

The Council explained that pulling the pin on the Sydney fireworks would “have little little practical benefit for affected communities”. Calls from the public to cancel the event include a Charge.Org petition signed by over 269,000 people.

The Change.Org petition urges Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore to donate the money spent on fireworks across the country – including $5.8 million in Sydney alone – for NYE to farmers, firefighters and animal carers.

“It’s all about AUSTRALIA showing respect for firefighter and victims of these catastrophic fires burning around the country,” the petition says.

Council said that most of the budget, largely for crowd safety and cleaning measures, had already been spent, as prep and planning for NYE began in September 2018.

“Cancelling the event would seriously hurt Sydney businesses. It would also ruin plans for tens of thousands of people from across the country and overseas who have booked flights, hotels and restaurants for New Year’s Eve.”

Still, the event may be cancelled at the last minute by the Rural Fire Service, as the ABC writes. Yesterday, NSW RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimons said he wasn’t concerned about the cost of calling off the festivities if the bushfire risk was too great. “If I determine it to be too risky, that doesn’t concern me,” he said.

A final call on the fireworks is expected this afternoon, when a more detailed weather forecast is available, as News.com.au reports. Fitzsimons said that he is “confident, unless something untoward comes out of the forecast” that the celebration will continue as scheduled.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will speak to the RFS about any safety concerns, but is in favour of the fireworks going forward as planned.

“Sydney is one of the first cities in the world welcoming in the New Year. If it is safe to do so, we should continue to do it as we have done every other year,” she said.

But today Nationals MP and NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro tweeted that the NYE fireworks should be cancelled, out of respect.

In the wake of increased public scrutiny, with people describing the event as “disrespectful” to firefighters and victims, City Of Sydney Council intend to help raise funds for people affected, donating $620,000 to impacted communities and wildlife.

The Council are also directing people to donate to the Red Cross’s disaster relief programs online in the lead-up, and will continue to during the broadcast on the ABC, and on the ground. The charity works at evacuation centres and recovery hubs, makes wellbeing phone calls, and supplies emergency grants of $2000 to people who have lost their homes to bushfires.

The issue has punters divided, with some saying that forecast high temperatures on Tuesday, paired with strong wind warnings from the Bureau Of Meteorology, are too high risk — or simply too self-indulgent.

Others meanwhile are more sympathetic to the council’s position, having already spent money on the planned fireworks display.

And lastly there’s the cohort who would just prefer lasers to fireworks for New Year’s Eve.

Planned fireworks displays in Canberra and Victoria’s Torquay have already been cancelled due to a total fire ban in the ACT and safety concerns.

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Feature image via City Of Sydney/Facebook.