Hundreds Protest To ‘Reclaim’ Brisbane’s Nightlife
Concerned members of Brisbane’s music community turned out in force yesterday (March 11) to protest a proposed 2am shutdown on all live music venues and nightclubs. ANDREW MCMILLEN reports. Photos by ELLENI TOUMPAS.
Melbourne had its march for the ages last month, though it was too late to save The Tote. Yesterday, it was Brisbane's turn to take to the streets in response to proposed legislation that threatens to undermine its vibrant nightlife and culture.
While the Victorian SLAM rally was triggered by a "senseless and arbitrary" liquor licensing regime that tarred all live music venues with the same high-risk brush, the situation up north is a little different. The Anna Bligh-led Labor Government and Police Department Union last year launched an inquiry to curb alcohol-fuelled violence across the state. A proposed response is to close licensed venues at 2am, and enforce a “lockout” at 12am, thereby overruling the existing 3am lockout.
Ahead of the inquiry's findings - to be released on March 18 – concerned punters gathered outside Queensland Parliament House, a kilometre south of the CBD and located on the edge of the Botanic Gardens. Pitched as a peaceful, strictly drug- and alcohol-free protest named “Reclaim The Nightlife”, the organisers' expectations for 2000 attendees seemed ambitious as the clock struck 4pm.
At its peak an hour later, numbers swelled to around 600. Local venue owners, DJs, musicians and members of the media delivered impassioned speeches that hinted at the diverse range of community stakeholders whose livelihoods would be affected by the proposed licensing changes.
While politicians occasionally poked their heads out of the building before being jeered back inside, only a handful were brave enough to face the crowd from the upper balcony. One besuited staffer took photographs, while a trumpeter led the chorus of Rihanna's 'Please Don't Stop The Music' and the crowd cycled through chants: "We don't need no legislation", "Get your act together or we'll vote for someone better", "Stop crime, not fun" and "Fight for our right to party.”
Jeremy Iliev, a DJ and self-proclaimed “bedroom producer”, admitted his lack of knowledge of Brisbane's live music scene, however, he stated that music lovers across all genres will "lose out in the biggest way" if the legislation goes ahead. "If Anna Bligh stops the music, she stops Brisbane jobs, clubs, bars, nightlife, culture and its people," he said.
Steve Bell, editor of weekly street press Time Off pointed to the closure of The Tote in Melbourne and The Hopetoun Hotel in Sydney as a measure of how grave the situation may get.
“If we keep going at this rate, it's only a matter of time before our music scene and infrastructure begins to crumble like it did down south. We've got an amazing scene here; pound for pound, it's easily the best scene in Australia."
Acknowledging that today's protest is just a start, he urged the crowd to keep up the momentum. "Write to your local member, make phone calls, send emails, keep hassling to make sure that [the proposed lockdown] does not happen. We cannot stand and watch our music scene be taken from us."
Joanna Nilson of rock act the Butcher Birds was up next. She was easily one of the most direct and powerful speakers on the day. Beginning with a declaration that she is a "fully-functioning, responsible, employed, law-abiding Brisbane citizen who chooses to play in a rock band", she cited Billboard's naming of Brisbane as an international music hotspot in 2007. "I've been playing music in this city for seven years. What Brisbane artists produce is beautiful, passionate and absolutely unique to the rest of the world."
As someone who performs in the Fortitude Valley entertainment precinct nearly every week, she said that an early lockout had the potential to “kill live music in this city” and conversely would make the area even more unsafe. “Without supportive, economically sound live music venues, musicians will find it very difficult to hone their craft and develop - let alone build a following or a fanbase,” she said.
She concluded with a challenge, "Do not take this lying down!", which was met with a loud cheer.
Nick Braban, owner of local venue Barsoma, was the afternoon's final guest speaker, and its most politically provocative. "The simple act of wanting to stay out and dance all night is being made illegal by the jokers sitting in that building right there!" However, I couldn't tell whether his suggestion that the government would be better off banning the sale of Bundaberg Rum to curb alcohol-related violence was a joke, or not. Perhaps he was serious.
Braban said that he and fellow Valley venue owners promote "entertainment, not consumption" and echoed Bell's call to act beyond the gathering's goodwill. "We're the youth. We're the ones who'll be paying [taxes] for [the politicians] in a few years' time when they retire. Let's tell them what we want, and how we want to grow up."
Judging by today’s turnout, the proposed legislative changes will affect hundreds more livelihoods and businesses than the handful of isolated incidents that prompted the introduction of the state's 3am lockout in 2005. However, in anticipation of the inquiry's March 18 findings, today's protest is a comma in the journal of Brisbane's live music scene, not a full stop.
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M&N Avatar Series - Where are they now?
hmmm.. Perhaps not.
Hundreds? Poor Brisbane...
Yep, the turn out was a real shame.
''A live music scene keeps overzealous merch dudes alive!''
keh?
Wow, there was literally tens of people there.
Why do other states gov keep picking up this lockout idea?
While we were anticipating at least another thousand people at this protest we were able to acheive everything we wanted with this protest. We were able to get the governments attention (letters from Anna Bligh and discussions with Peter Lawlor and the president of the QPU), we were able to get the media's attention. When this issue was first brought to light late last year, the media's twist on everything was very supportive of an early shutdown. Watching Channel 9 and ABC News last night and reading the papers today (though small coverage on the courier); it seemed to be supporting out arguments a lot more... that's what we wanted. We were also able to get the support of 2 politicians (all MPs up until now were keeping their cards pretty close to their chest) to get an official parliamentary petition happening should things change on March 18th.
Now remember, this was a proactive protest not a reactive protest; a decision wasn't made which was going to be passed as law which upset us. This was purely a protest to say that we care enough about our music to get such ridiculous ideas out of your head. If the proposal does recommend the government to shutdown venues (and Bligh goes forward with it), believe you me, we will raise hell! I will work with every single person that cares about this issue and make SLAM rally in Melbourne look like a Rick Astley Comeback tour.
We agree that alcohol fuelled violence is a problem on our streets; not just in Queensland, but all around Australia. Bringing back trading hours, shutting off the music earlier in the night and throwing us all out on the streets is not the solution. Why don't the government review their 3am lockout plan since that was supposed to reduce violence back in 2005 and it's still been on the rise?
What we suggest is for the government to be realistic about the issue. We want more police in our entertainment precincts. The police have been doing an amazing job but they're overworked and they just need more funding and resources. For the 35,000 people that are in the valley on a Saturday night, there are only 16 police officers. Why aren't the government supporting our police? Every few months i hear about more federal taxes on alcohol.. What is happening with this money? Where is it being spent? Why would the government disband police units (a team of 6 specially trained police who dealt with violence in the valley were disbanded earlier this week because of the lack our resources) instead of supporting them and providing the resources they need and have been asking for?
The other thing we ask from the government and the judicial system is harsher penalties for the offenders. Most of us are peaceful.. 99% of people that go out in the valley and around Australia aren't causing any problems whatsoever; however the other 1% are ruining it for the rest of us. Punish them, not all of us! Operation Merit that happened late last year arrested 40 people in relation to violence and sexual assaults. All of them went to court... Almost all of them just received a 300 dollar fine and no criminal conviction. That's 2 big day out tickets.. That’s a weekend out.. Punish these people! Teach them a lesson! Some of those people arrested during operation merit were multiple offenders (one was in court 3 times before that for alcohol fuelled violence and still received just a $300 fine... wtf?)
It seems state governments around Australia are strangling the music scene all over and there are talks with various groups around the country to have a national protest about this in each capital city and bring this to the federal government. We love our music and we want our freedom…If they’re not going to listen to the music lovers of Australia, we’ll make sure we can find someone that will…
On another note, Thanks to all that attended and thank you Andrew for covering the protest.
Wow zachsalar, very well said indeed.
well done zach. i was reading about the policing issues etc in the lead up for the protest. i think it was something like 1 police officer to 1300 people in the valley on a night. and considering research has shown that police presence is one of the best preventative measures of crime this is ridiculous. I'll stop with the justice student spiel but locking the venues down and getting more people out on the street will not stop the issue. and why are we paying taxes to keep these people in power who then want to put us out of a job. plus put the musicians, we love out of a job. Not to mention reviewers, photographers and nnot to mention everyone associated with this industry we love
lockout doesn't make a lick of sense even from a political standpoint.
increases violence out in the street, up goes crime rates, govt gets chastised for being soft on crime
????
People keep saying stuff like this like it's obvious, but there are some pretty good examples of where cutting trading hours has reduced problems (or vice versa). Just last year pubs in Newcastle were forced to close at 3am and violence dropped ~ 35%. See here for details.
Now I'm not saying that this means that closing stuff at 2 or midnight or whatever is the way forward, but I don't think it really helps if people come out and say 'closing things earlier won't solve the problem, it will just make things worse' when there's actually reasonable evidence that closing things earlier would be a reasonably effective way to reduce violence.
Well how about no venues open at all and everyone stays at home and there will be no violence at all? I have a mate from Newcastle who says that it's just dead and people don't even bother going out anymore.I see what you mean but people don't want to cut short their night out because a few bogans want to start fights.
off top of head, ok closing reduces (or moves) violence but it
(a) returns us to a 1950s nanny state as opposed to an international city capable of managing it's nightime - as melonhcst says the city will be dead;
(b) cuts the economic benefits of the night time economy;
(c) people won't stop partying, they'll just move to illegal venues (preferably next to politicians homes) aka corey worthington, and their behavior will be out of control;
(d) it's no actually addressing the cause of the behavior; &
(e) for a societal perspective it's better to maintain the fringe than chop it off - a lot of networking happens in those post-show early hours and this is good for the cultural economy.
and flows through to society as a whole etc blah blah blither. i saw on the gold coast that some venues are offering to put on buses that patrons can use from venue to get home (or near home - not sure) - that is a good idea because a nighttime economy can't be run on daytime public transport timetables.
I can’t believe the police to punter ratio in the valley. Is that true? If so, there lies the problem. Does the government really expect sixteen police to control 35000 people? It’s almost laughable. More police and harsher penalties are going to be required if they ever want to get on top of this ever increasing problem.
I'm about to release a press release very soon that is related to London extending their trading hours. In summary, London has extended their trading hours from 2am shutdowns to 24 hour licenses. This was done in 2005 and so for 2 years prior and 2 years after they introduced these laws they have done some hard research.
What they've found is that overall violence has been reduced by 5%, property damage has been reduced as well as sexual assaults. In some places violence was reduced by up to 30%.
Now some places violence was increase by extending the trading hours, and the study showed that a curfew worked in smaller towns and the outer suburbs BUT they don't work in big cities. So London is looking at reversing this decision.
Don't listen to what the government tells you, they are twisting the facts. I was having a discussion with Peter Lawlor (minister of tourism and fair trading) and they're throwing all these facts around about proof that violence is deceasing and they all applied to small towns. And when Peter Lawlor says New York is looking at shutting its venues at 2am, he would be right... if he was speaking in 2008.
Now there is another study that the government loves using and it's the one from Sydney. There was a study done on the 25 high risk venues to see if a 2am shutdown helped reduce violence. Pretty much (this one page study) said yes.. and what it didn't factor in is the increased police presence around these venues, the fact that these high risk venues didn't have as many patrons as they usually do (because people just went out elsewhere) and the fact that violence increased in the other 200-300 non-highrisk venues because the dick heads got drunk somewhere else.
bah, just a correction... London isn't looking at reversing the decision for everywhere. Just the small towns. 24 hour licenses will remain in place for busy areas.
Miss Australia - to clarify: I'm not saying that just because there is evidence that trading hours can make a difference to violence rates that cutting trading hours is a good idea. I'm saying that going out saying 'this will make things more violent' is counter-productive and comes off like wishful thinking. The argument needs to be that the costs of these measures across all the domains you talk about outweigh whatever reductions in violence/problems might come from them. And I think that's an argument that can be made.
Zachsalar - London is an interesting case, and the results there were unexpected. I'm a little sceptical of their research for a few reasons (1. violence was trending down anyway, a simple pre-post test doesn't tell you whether the change in hours altered the trend, 2. lots of places were already open past 2am in the UK before the new act and the actual changes to operating hours ended up being relatively minor). But your point is valid - this isn't a magic bullet that has worked in every situation (there's some stuff out of small Canadian towns that showed little/no effect as well). My point is just that the weight of the evidence suggests that trading hours make a difference (see, e.g., this recent review).
Thus to base your argument on the fact that cutting trading hours won't reduce violence in Brisbane seems to me to be pinning the whole debate on a point that govt/police etc can relatively easily refute. As I said, I'm not trying to say that this idea is great public policy, I'm just pointing out that it's not as obviously counter-productive in terms of violence as is being suggested.
Isn't the Valley the most terrible place to go out at night in the universe? Besides the violence, there are thousands of insanely drunk and interminably annoying people falling about like seaweed in an ocean current. How can you enjoy seeing bands or playing in them in that environment? Run away.
cloud watcher - teens in general are quite horrible and annoying.
mjlivi - you've put a lot of thought into it, unlike me. but how about this:
brisbane solution = public floggings. anyone who gets caught being violent will become the next weeks public flogging entertainment. this benefits punters and the floggee, because most violent types do it for a ‘social thrill’ or somesuch so they can then upload the pics of their bloody and painful flogging to facebook the next day. stocks could be set up in the centre of the valley mall. the introduction of blood 'sport' will add to the character of the valley as an entertainment precinct. ancillary revenue opportunities include merchandise or wagering on the flogging outcomes (eg. unconsciousness, blood loss levels, incapacity etc.).
think about it, a nights entertainment might include: dinner then go to either troubadour, step inn, zoo etc for support band, then go to the mall to cheer on a bloody public flaying (girls may vomit up their dinner so a special vomit trench could be set up that merges with a blood trench from the flogging to keep it all sanitary), then go back to the venue for the main band, followed by networking and booze after band, because the venues will then be allowed to stay open. anyone caught being violent then becomes the entertainment for next week. who supports this idea?
Fortitude Valley crowds would quadruple. Run away.
with flogging fodder...... EEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahhaha
I've been pondering this, and I think the best thing would be for Sixfthick and Butcher Birds to move to Melbourne immediately. They can stay at my house.
No, don't thank me, I'm just trying to do my bit.