We’ve had a number of requests for Andy Stewart’s editorial from Issue 71 to be reprinted online. The opening column of the issue dealt with the counterintuitive manner by which the Victorian government is dealing with violence in watering holes across Victoria, and indeed, Australia’s other states’ policies to such. With the recent demise of The Tote, we felt it was time to release this text into the wild.

Text: Andy Stewart

It used to be called ‘The Garden State’ back in the day when pubs booked bands (and pokies were banned). A decade or two later, after several inner-city police shooting incidents involving mentally-ill people wielding broom handles and the like, many in Victoria began coining a different phrase – ‘The Police State’ – though this rarely appeared on the number plate. In 2009 the State of Victoria is perhaps now more deserving of another name: ‘The Wowser State’.
Now this might seem a tad ironic given the amount of alcohol-fuelled violence that’s been reported on the streets of Melbourne’s CBD in recent months. If you’re to believe the hype – and for the benefit of everyone who lives beyond the borders of Australia’s most preoccupied state – drunken stabbings, ‘glassings’ and shootings are now a nightly occurrence in some parts of Melbourne’s CBD. Ten years ago you were far more likely to be lacerated by a startled possum or swooped by a magpie than attacked by a drunken numbskull.
Of course, most people in Australia don’t consider wandering around Melbourne’s inner city at 4am, pissed out of their mind, to be entertainment. A few do of course, rocket scientists all of them.

So what has the unrepresentative slurry of self-serving ex-footballers and accountants down at the Victorian Parliament decided to do about the problem? Crack down on every entertainment venue across the wide state of Victoria by demanding that each business employ a bouncer whenever any form of live entertainment is provided – at least that’s what they’re proposing. This must be stopped.
In what can only be described as a decision worthy of a drunken yob, the Victorian Government’s proposal not only threatens the economic viability of the majority of small entertainment venues, it threatens to tear apart the very fabric of live music as we know it. At $250 (on average) per bouncer per shift, most venues simply cannot afford the added financial burden.
The criminal behaviour of a few thugs in one tiny part of the state is no justification whatsoever for placing an economic millstone around the neck of venues as far flung and diverse as the Downstairs Café in Leongatha and the Bowls Club in Bentleigh – venues where the only history of violence ever reported was the launching of a lamington, accidentally flicked from the fork of a patron in the act of swatting a fly. The blanket knee-jerk reaction by the Victorian Government punishes financially the vast majority of well-behaved music goers at smaller venues where no violence has ever occurred. Surely this wasn’t the aim of the reform? As one person recently put it: “Even a Bouzouki player in your local Greek tavern will require the venue to hire security… to watch over four families eating the mixed grill and Greek salad.”

Indeed, according to the Liquor Control Reform Regulations of 2009, this crackdown goes against its own explicit code: “risk factors need to be substantiated by a sound evidence base and rationale” (page 17).
This reform clearly hasn’t met its own guidelines. The vast majority of venues to which this proposal applies have no history of violence whatsoever, and thus the “sound evidence base” in these cases simply doesn’t exist.
This reform measure will inflict untold damage on the grass-roots music community and cause widespread job losses among the service and entertainment industries. This is where the term ‘Wowser State’ seems so appropriate. The whole reform seems so unreasonable, so illogical and so poorly conceived, you could be forgiven for drawing another conclusion – that the Victorian Government simply doesn’t like people having fun anywhere south of the Murray River, unless its in a sanctioned venue like Crown Casino. Hmm, the plot thickens. Clearly, local venues need to form a lobby group and pay big money for a meeting with the State government to have their voices heard.

NEW SOUTH WALES – THE PLACE TO BE

The New South Wales government, on the other hand – as inept as it has proven to be in other ways – has just removed the requirement of pubs, cafés, restaurants and clubs etc to seek a ‘Place of Public Entertainment’ approval prior to establishing live entertainment as part of their main business practice.
“Entertainment”, in the form of bands, DJs and afternoon jazz performances etc, is now considered part of “normal activities” in NSW, unless adding this aspect to a business “fundamentally changes the principal use of the venue.” This single move will no doubt hasten the revival of the live music scene right across the state. It’s a law designed to encourage and restore (not damage and ignore) the artistic community. It will also inevitably cause its own problems – noise complaints from neighbours are a common issue in Sydney.
It might be time for New South Wales to put a lock on its gate. Musicians all over Victoria may well head north in droves to the greener pastures of ‘The Premier State’, as implausible as that may seem. New South Welshmen should be on the lookout for Victorian number plates that either read: “Victoria: On The Move” or “Victoria: The Place To Be”. The first of these slogans is only just now beginning to make sense, while the irony of the second is inescapable. Having said all that, there’s always South Australia, “The Electronics State.” That’s what at least one number plate I’ve seen over there reads. I kid you not.
Victoria: ‘The Place To Flee’?