Leadership / 01.31.19

Music to the Ears of Live Venues as NSW Labor Unveils Policy

Access Staff

Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) (01/23/19) Visentin, Lisa

New South Wales' (NSW) Labor Party has vowed to allocate $1.2 million to help live music venues with soundproofing and, if elected, set up a new licensing scheme to prevent "unreasonable complainants from holding venues to ransom." In announcing the policy, Labor leader Michael Daley said a Labor government would revise the Liquor Act to create a new class of license for such venues, and expedite the process for planning and liquor approvals in a bid to shorten waiting times. "These measures are good for venues, good for residents. They should provide practical help for venues, but make government processes more open for residents," Daley noted. According to Labor official John Graham, the closure of live music venues across NSW "was now at crisis point." He emphasized that "Too often it is a case of 'another one bites the dust' — one more venue lost to overdevelopment and over-regulation. At the moment there are seven different sets of bureaucrats dealing with noise. We want to make it easier for ordinary residents to get information to get a resolution, and harder for serial complainants." Labor also pledged to administer a biannual independent census of live venues to report industry statistics, including the number of venues, number of performances, number of working musicians, and number of hospitality employees.

Read the full article on the Sydney Morning Herald website. 

Tags: Regulations , News , Venues