A NEW agreement relaxing tough liquor licensing laws has been signed between Melbourne's live music industry and the State Government.
A Government plan to tackle alcohol-related violence at venues resulted in massive licensing fee rises and extra security requirements for venues with live amplified music.
The Live Music Accord will now give individual venues more discretion to organise their security.
It follows a vocal community campaign to save the iconic Tote Hotel in Collingwood which closed after it could not afford the new fees.
Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson said the Government was committed to securing the future of Victoria's live music culture.
''Government and the industry all agreed maintaining community safety and amenity were important and this was consistent with encouraging a flourishing music scene where smaller venues could give local bands their start in the business,'' Mr Robinson said in a statement.
Licensees will still be expected to maintain safe venues but crowd control laws will not be automatically applied to new live music venues, unless mandated by planning approvals, breach of liquor licence laws or police recommendation.
The agreement will be reviewed in 12 months.
Quote your source?
Discretion....committed....12 months....mmmmm
news.com.au
Also just recieved calls, been in news on the box.
is this a press release?
Can someone from news.com.au or in the journalism trade generally please ask Tony Robinson (or their press secretary) to confirm that this agreement/accord has any substantive effect (without LLV complicity)?
I'm not convinced it has, and the media seems to be lapping up the government spin without any due diligent inquiry.
you have a listen to a good yarn about it on the ABC this morning
[(http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2010/s2827425.htm)]
you can have a listen to a good yarn about it on the ABC this morning
[(http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2010/s2827425.htm)]
My feeling (from discussions with a lot of people affected by this) that the agreement will have an immediate impact.
I stress, I was not at the meetings and I am not from SLAM.
There is still a lot more to do, including making sure we have 30,000+ petition signatures, making sure LLV acts in a positive way to the agreement, fighting the amenity regulations, etc.
But the tide has turned.
Keep the healthy skepticism though.
This is straight up politicking from the government here. You're driving in to work, you're going to skip out an hour and a half early with or without the consent of your boss, you hear on the radio ''Agreement reached! Everything's fine!'' so fuck it, you don't go.
Then, 3 months later, you hear The Birmy is no longer having live music because of the cost of installing CCTV, and you think ''didn't we fix that?'', just like last time. Why? Because once they realised they had lulled us into the sense that they had done something, they didn't do anything.
Maintain your rage.
I agree Bruce that Sue McLellan will have an eye on her upcoming re-appointment - and that's the best (only?) card the Government has got at the moment (other than a very smooth spin machine).
Modi, do we have a source on this? A bunch of drunken fratboys? I could use some names. I.P. Freely.... uggggghhhh.
I agree Bruce, there is a lot more to do and we have to stay active and commited.
can't believe experienced reporters at the dailies are still falling for what is essentially government spin.
until the laws are changed, we must never stop the fight.
can I get a TL;DR version of what is currently going on?