‘I’m embarrassed’: Premier apologises after families uninvited in NYE ticketing bungle

November 6, 2026 — 12:36pm

An embarrassed NSW Premier Chris Minns has apologised after about 3000 Sydneysiders were left disappointed when a ticketing mix-up led to them being uninvited from the exclusive Cahill Expressway New Year’s Eve fireworks viewing point.

The view from the Cahill Expressway is one of the best on offer at Circular Quay, and so in demand the state government operates a ballot system for about 10,000 spots.

This year after the first round of tickets were claimed, Transport identified 350 tickets that were yet to be allocated. What was supposed to be an email sent to 350 people ended up going out to about 3000 people, who excitedly started making New Year’s Eve plans only to later discover the event was actually at capacity, and they had essentially been uninvited.

One of those left disappointed was 28-year-old musician and busker Ty Cluse, who creates social media content about his love of Sydney and navigating the world as a person with a vision impairment.

When he was told he had won the ballot, Cluse started making plans for his friend to fly in from Adelaide and began organising accessibility aids for the night. A few days later, Transport told him there had been an error and he had in fact missed out.

“It very much feels like I had an invite that was snatched out of my hands,” Cluse said.

Transport officials have promised those left disappointed that they will be first in the queue next year. However, Clunes is still trying to find a way to make his dream come true this year.

“Chris Minns if you can help me out brother I’d love to go … I’m from a small town that couldn’t embrace me, and this city has just embraced me. So I don’t know if Chris Minns is ever going to read this, but Chris, man, make me love it even more.”

The premier said on Friday that it wasn’t safe to allow any more families to access the Cahill Expressway event, but the government would make sure the mistake never happens again.

“I’m pretty embarrassed about it, I’m very sorry that this has happened, I know that’s a night that thousand look forward to and they would have got their hopes up thinking they had a date for their New Year’s Eve so I’m very sorry about that,” he said.

The source of the mix-up is still being determined, but was likely down to human error, Transport for NSW Secretary Josh Murray told 2GB.

“It’s a bit like when you’re thinking about emailing something about your boss, and you send the email to your boss instead. I think their mind may have been on other things,” Murray said.

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