Just one day out from New Year’s Eve, a growing online campaign is fighting to cancel all fireworks demonstrations across Australia.
A change.org petition calling to “Say NO to FIREWORKS NYE 2019 – give the money to farmers and firefighters” has gathered more than 268,000 signatures from supporters, who don’t want to celebrate the start of 2020 with a fireworks display.
“All states should say NO to FIREWORKS,” the petition reads. “This may traumatise some people as there is enough smoke in the air.”
According to the petition, $5.8 million was spent in Sydney on its New Year’s Eve fireworks display last year.
The campaign proposes that the millions spent this year should instead be allocated to “farmers, firefighters and animal carers”.
But Sydney New Years Eve celebration organisers have dismissed suggestions that cancelling the pyrotechnic display would be beneficial to people affected by the ongoing bushfires crisis.
“We know that cancelling the fireworks will have zero practical benefit for those fire-ravaged communities,” Tanya Goldberg, the Sydney NYE head of audience told Today this morning.
“The one thing that will help those communities is to go ahead with the event and leverage the power of it to drive people to donate, to demonstrate their generosity by going to the Australian Red Cross disaster relief and recovery fund.”
“They can go to nye.Sydney/donate and we will be promoting that in the lead up, and that I can do.”
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When asked if there would be any kind of tribute to the tireless efforts of volunteer fireys during the show, Ms Goldberg said “no”.
“There will not be an overt tribute to the firefighters – (creative) plans were put in place months and months and months ago, but we are doing everything to throw our support behind them,” she said.
Despite the petition, Shane Fitzsimmons, commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service, is expected to give the Sydney New Years Eve fireworks the go-ahead this afternoon, after days of debate and speculation.
He said crews will be working with the pyrotechnics companies, local authorities and government, and the decision will be based on weather and wind patterns on the day.
“We will be weighing up the risks this afternoon with more details on the forecast. I don’t envisage a cancellation of the fireworks on account of the total fire bans,” he said.
“Any perceived risk will be remediated.”
After receiving a firmed-up weather outlook midafternoon on Monday, the NSW RFS will make a final call on Sydney’s fireworks, but Commissioner Fitzsimmons said he’s “confident, unless something untoward comes out of the forecast”, the event will go ahead.
The NSW RFS is working with all parties to finalise exemptions on total fire ban for Sydney City Council, he said.
In many rural and regional areas, where the “risk is very different”, total fire ban exemptions haven’t been granted for local fireworks celebrations.
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