zachsalar

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.

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%.

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.

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.