Reinforcements have arrived.
Panellists representing the Sydney live music industry at today’s Electronic Music Conference said they’d be mounting an organised push-back to the city’s lockout laws, with a full-blown PR campaign also in the pipeline.
By their own admission, the city’s live music industry was underprepared to challenge the government on the laws when they first hit, but the way the Draconian rules have fucked up late-night business in the area has rekindled the conflict.
For the record, the industry isn’t going to ask for a full repeal of the laws – what’s done is done, basically. John Wardle, the policy director of the Live Music Office said the proposed initiative would be about “rewarding responsible venues that make a cultural contribution to the life of the city” with exemptions from the lockout laws.
Read: If the lobby has their way, venues that don’t harbour violent dipshits won’t be punished for the actions of violent dipshits elsewhere. Whodathunk.
The laws are up for review in February. While we assume everyone involved will come to the same conclusion we did – that keeping non-violent punters out of responsible venues only shifted the results of our nation’s ingrained alcohol/violence paradigm elsewhere, while effectively gutting a vibrant industry – it’ll be nice to have a more unified voice on the side of the punters.
