State government will run 9pm NYE fireworks after City of Sydney cancelled

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has come to the rescue of Sydney’s family-friendly NYE fireworks, declaring the 9pm ‘show must go on’ and hinting the state may take over the event permanently.

Sydney’s family fireworks will be saved, with Treasurer Dominic Perrottet declaring the “show must go on”.

The state government is set to take over running this year’s fireworks to ensure the 9pm show will go ahead, after Lord Mayor Clover Moore announced the City of Sydney would scrap the family-friendly celebration.

Sydney’s family fireworks will go ahead at 9pm on NYE after all. Picture: AAP

Following outrage at the decision, Mr Perrottet has even suggested he could take over the world-famous fireworks permanently, to run them as a state-significant event.

“For parents and young kids, the family fireworks are the main event,” Mr Perrottet said.

The fireworks could be paid for with the state government’s CBD Revitalisation Fund.

In addition to bringing back the 9pm fireworks, the Treasurer is determined to host a NYE party for Covid first-responders on the Cahill Expressway, as part of his bid to revitalise the road into a New York-style High Line.

Moves from the state government to take control of this year’s event are a reversal of a previous position from Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s department, which previously declined an offer from the council to operate the fireworks.

The City of Sydney advised the Department of Premier and Cabinet in August that this year’s 9pm fireworks would not go ahead.

Ms Berejiklian acknowledged this correspondence in a personally-signed letter the same day.

But after widespread anger at a plan to cancel the family fireworks for the second year running, the Berejiklian government is now exploring ways to run the 9pm show in a Covid-safe way.

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet is considering taking over the world-famous fireworks permanently. Picture: Justin Lloyd

“NYE is not the time for a nana nap, it’s time to celebrate and have a great time,” Mr Perrottet said.

Mr Perrottet said vaccination rates would be approaching 90 per cent in time for the fireworks, so it didn’t make sense to cancel the 9pm show.

He said the council would be “crackers” to cancel the family event when vaccination rates are that high.

“We need a bit more boom, boom, boom instead of all the gloom, gloom, gloom,” he said.

“Sydney and the state deserve to have a big party after enduring a tumultuous two years.”

Ms Moore has repeatedly invited the state government to take responsibility for running the fireworks if it wanted the 9pm show to go ahead.

“If the government is concerned about the City’s plans and confident a Covid-safe event can and should go ahead, it should take custodianship of the fireworks again,” she said.

The Treasurer’s plan to host a NYE party for first responders is part of plans outlined in the budget to bring life back into the CBD.