Sydney’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks Will Go On Despite Bushfire Concerns
Sydney, Australia is known for its annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display. However, this year over a quarter of a million people have signed a petition to cancel the show in response to the massive wild/bush fires that have been affecting the area recently. The petition was made through Change.org and currently has just over 276,000 signatures with a goal of 300,000. In the description the petition states that the funds that would typically be spent on the extravagant display should be redistributed in order to help with recovery efforts from the devastating fires, as well as preventative measures for the future.
“I’ve been moved by the outpouring of support and care for the community but the event will continue as planned. Our fireworks are planned 15 months in advance and most of the budget — which is largely allocated to crowd safety and cleaning measures — has already been spent.” Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore said in a statement.
It’s likely that with this statement from the mayor and with there only being one day until New Year’s Eve, the fireworks show will still go on, however, the message Australia’s citizens are attempting to spread should still be heard, so their fight is continuing. Sydney is the capital of New South Wales (NSW), where a majority of these fires have been taking place.
Linda McCormich is the NSW resident who started the online petition and is leading the fight against the display. She wants the money to go to “farmers and firefighters to save Australia’s wildlife. The fireworks could traumatise some people as there is enough smoke in the air.” Additionally, the petition states that in 2018, Sydney spent close to $5.8 million on the display alone, which McCormich and her supporters believe would be more than enough to rebuild and refurbish some of the major damage done across the country.
Within the past two months NSW has lost over 900 homes and an estimated 10 individuals to the devastating bushfires, according the the NSW Fire Services. The fires have also sent Australia as a whole into one of the driest and most vast droughts of the decade, with an average daily maximum of 107 degrees fahrenheit. The fires have been so tragic that the Australian capital Canberra has cancelled all future fireworks displays and enforced a total fire ban, a political move that also worked as a motivator for this particular petition.
“(Canceling) 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. $433,000 has already been donated to support communities and wildlife impacted by bushfire and drought, and offered our trucks and staff to help emergency services with cleanup and recovery efforts. The display will also be greener this year using fireworks that are carbon offset,” said organizers from the City Council of Sydney in a statement.
New South Wales has also made a public statement that all Rural Fire Service volunteers are being paid a maximum of $6,000 each for their extreme relief efforts. A majority of firefighters in the country have still yet to be paid for their bush-fire work, due to the frequent occurrences of them, and damages done in general.
While efforts to cancel the display have been strong, council members stated that the amount of money local businesses earn during the New Year’s Eve rush is imperative to the survival of most of them. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people make commitments to come to Sydney specifically for New Year’s, and they book the trips so far in advance, cancelling now would cause complete chaos around the world. So while the 275,000+ individuals will be disappointed, city council members as well as environmentalists are still working together to rebuild and recover from an otherwise devastating year.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.