Recent South Australian country show cancellations in the Barossa Valley could attract another round of federal funding support, their local MP says.
Tony Pasin, who represents the south-eastern SA federal electorate of Barker has called for reimbursements for regional show events that have recently been cancelled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
When asked on Flow on Monday about possible financial support for cancelled events, such as Angaston and Tanunda Shows in Barker's Barossa Valley, Pasin said it would be “unconscionable” for there to be no helping hand from the federal government.
“We’ve now been through effectively two show-years impacted by Covid; for the first of those years there were a large number of cancellations across my electorate and shows received a total of $403,000 in support – basically the larger the show, the greater the funding.”
“In the 2021 year a number of shows were again cancelled frustratingly and we provided funding for those shows cancelled in 2021 to apply for up to $70,000 - a similar program to the 2020 program.”
“Tanunda and Angaston weren’t eligible for either of those grants ... they were able to conduct their shows in 2020 just before the pandemic broke and 2021.”
“Now that they’ve [Tanunda and Angaston shows] been cancelled I’m confident there’ll be a further round of these supporting agricultural shows grants ... it would be unconscionable that some shows cancelled in 2020 and 2021 are provided support funding and shows cancelled in 2022 not.”
While the Tanunda Show has been cancelled, the traditional weekend horse events associated with the Angaston Show will run.
Meanwhile the Lucindale Show in the state’s south-east, will proceed on the 26th and 27th of February.
On Monday, Laura Rivett, the Secretary of the Lucindale Show, told Flow that events with under 1,000 attendees could enact Covid-safe plans and avoid cancellations.
“Covid hasn’t affected us too much because we’re only a small show, so under a thousand people, Covid-safe plan ... just the new normal that we’re used to with the QR codes and the sanitisers and just trying to keep a little bit of social distancing.”
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