Police revenue from user-pays events has increased from $5.5 million in 2007-08 to $8.5 million last financial year. A Police Integrity Commission report last year found the lure of overtime was fraught with ''integrity hazards and corruption risks''. The PIC said it had received complaints about police falsely claiming to have done user-pays work and unauthorised changing of rosters so they could do it. User-pays policing, introduced by the Carr government, allows the hiring of off-duty uniformed police for private events, such as concert and sporting matches. Police said they had been told to expect a crowd at Dungog three times as large and did not have the same facilities as metropolitan areas.

Sometimes hiring police is compulsory, if it is believed an event poses a risk to public order. The commander of the local station determines the numbers needed. But a Fairfax Media investigation has obtained documents that show these fees can vary considerably. Officers are charged out at up to $100 an hour. They receive time-and-a-half, and head office claims the rest. A police force spokesman rejected the claims, saying the system was ''all very transparent''. ''There's a user-pays policy that is on the website. Of course you're going to get people who are upset because they have to pay,'' he said. At Dungog dozens of police patrolled the five-hour acoustic concert, but the precise number is not known because police refused to provide it on an invoice.

The day after the acoustic concert, Mumford and Sons played alongside several other bands in a one-day festival in Dungog that drew 14,000 fans. Police charged another $60,000 for that day, on which five people were arrested for drug offences. ''A significant policing presence was required to ensure the safety and security of [10,000] campers and concert-goers,'' a police spokesman said. The previous year, police in Parramatta would charge little more than $10,000 to provide security for 11,000 people at the Harvest Festival. Police Association president Scott Weber said rural events were more expensive because of the costs associated with getting the police to the area to carry out the work. ''This is not about profit, it's about public safety - if there aren't enough police to do the job we need to get them there, secure accommodation, and that all costs money,'' he said. The bill for the Soundwave festival, which attracts a crowd of nearly 70,000, jumped from $70,000 to more than $100,000 this year. Police arrested 20 festival-goers last year and none this year.

Costs for the now-defunct V Festival at Centennial Park rose from about $40,000 in 2007 to more than $100,000 in 2009. Ticket sales for the festival fell from 35,000 to 29,000. Promoters - none of whom will speak on the record - blame police for the need to raise ticket prices. Police Minister Michael Gallacher would not say how many complaints he had received but said police had begun working with event promoters and the Transport and Tourism Forum to ''examine ways to streamline processes related to user pays to improve efficiencies''.