Canberra music duo Peking Duk are the latest voice to speak out against the treatment of the arts industry and the "botched" vaccine roll out.
They posted an open letter this week venting their frustration with the latest restrictions.
"Because the federal government royally f***ed this vaccine roll out, it means less gigs, less travel, more uncertainty," the letter said.
"Now in July 2021, with Australia firmly the worst performing country in the OECD for fully vaccinated adults the music industry is facing more uncertainty, more cancellations, more postponements."
They expressed frustration in particular that sports were treated with more leniency than live music, and were left "scratching their heads" over how to plan live events for the near future.
"It doesn't have to be this way, sport seems to be doing well - thousands of people were at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane while music venues in Melbourne (with zero Covid cases) were left with no dancing policies and operating at hugely reduced capacities," they wrote.
"When will live music be afforded the same luxury as other events?"
Meanwhile, another Canberra duo, Neko Pink, were also upset about the government's treatment of live music.
"The end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 was really strong for us. We performed at Spilt Milk and were planning a tour that we then had to cancel," said band member Africa Mylchreest.
Fellow musician Gus Higuma said for them, like Peking Duk, the latest lockdowns resulted in cancelled shows.
"We bide our time, this year things were getting better. We had a tour planned for July and August this year and we've now had to cancel that as well," he said.
The duo added there were many other aspects of the lockdowns impacting musicians people may not have considered.
"People don't realise that when you release music, it's just not worth doing without that live interaction," Mylchreest said.
"You need to have the live shows. We want to be able to show what we're working on."
Higuma added cancelling shows took away motivation for artists to keep producing work.
"So much of what's happened has meant that you just get that motivation taken away from you, it's upsetting because we've finally got that motivation back," he said.
"We've had so many false starts and uncertainty, you have to wonder, 'Is it worth rescheduling the tour'?"
They both said they had been disappointed by the Morrison government's slow vaccine rollout and how the arts industry had been treated differently to sports.
"I love going to the footy but when thousands of people can go to sports and you can't have a few people dancing at a show, it's a slap in the face," said Higuma.
Bar manager and co-owner of Canberra bar Sideway Tim Brown said while the lockdowns in Canberra had not been as severe as those imposed in Melbourne or Sydney, their live music events had still been affected.
"We've had to cancel a few shows because of the Sydney lockdown, as we had Sydney-based artists booked," he said.
