..and jazz, folk or any music you care for. And not just in the good ole Sydney pub. Changes are afoot to the NSW Liquor Act that will finally make Sydney an almost civilized metropolis.
Currently, if you have a small venue like a cafe, restaurant
a piano and booze combination would require a nightclub licence, costing up to $60,000. Under the proposed changes, the licence fee would drop to about $2500, Mr Wardle said. “In Europe and Latin America, and every other state in Australia, they take this for granted. It’s just NSW where it’s expensive and complex,” he said.
Mr Wardle is John Wardle, a Sydney jazz guitarist who has worked tirelessly to have the NSW Liquor Act changed after noting the decline of live music in Sydney. The Sydney music scene has suffered because of the move to pokie palaces as well as the licensing costs. But not everyone is happy:
But the NSW president of the Australian Hotels Association, John Thorpe, said the proposals were just “pie in the sky stuff”.
“And if it did happen, the effect it would have on our industry would be fairly substantial. It would hurt. I don’t know if the Government has considered compensation for these sorts of things,” he said.
Oh boo hoo. Just bung a few more pokies in Thorpey. That is what helped kill live music in the first place. Contrary to narrow-minded interests, the proposed changes are good for Sydney and NSW. Soon there will be no need to blow up the pokies. Just go to a venue without them, have an adult beverage of your choice and enjoy the music.
yah!
the AHA are a formidable opponent and big donor to the major pollies….. – i’m emailing my state labor mp right now.
thanks shaun for the update
No worries jo. And the changes are supposed to have bipartisan support which is good news.
The work we have done on the local govt regulations and the environmental planning and assessment act has done the hotel industry a huge favour, in making it much much easier for them to host live music in NSW hotels.
We are also very serious about some diversity and competition in liquor licensing for all the music that will never be made in the pub. Classical repertoire, multi cultural- world music genres, and performances by and for the under 18’s require a restaurant license and a live music venue licence for NSW.
the AHA cannot decline employment for the vast majority of musicians in NSW, and then demand compensation if restaurants and cafes are given the opportunity to host live music and contribute to the cultural life of NSW.
Are the $1,000,000.00 average profits per hotel per year from pokies (exempt from entertainment permission in NSW) not enough for this Mr Thorpe AM and his association? would he like it to come out of the musicians own pockets?
surely not all publicans can be like this man.
Thanks for your efforts on this John. It is much appreciated by once was musician who’d like to play a few more gigs again.
I don’t think most publicans are like Mr Thorpe. It will allow pubs have a sat evening, sunday afternoon session etc which can only be good.
Aye, aye, good work lads, cheers all around! Oops, wait there jest a second, dropped me pick in me pint I did. Right, then, got it fished out. Okay then, we’re all fixed here, let’s try “Boil the Breakfast Early,” this one goes out in honour of Mr. Wardle, what d’ye say there? Ready, lads?
One, two, tree…
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Don’t under-estimate the ability of the self-serving hotels lobby, like the clubs industry with the pokies tax or the taxis with any promise of deregulation, to scare the politicians out of this with a ‘jobs under threat’ campaign.
Consumers in NSW inevitably come last to the rent-seeking pub owners.
I’m just wondering have the changes included the noise/disturbance complaint procedures? From my understanding that was a factor in shutting down many former venues in Sydney. I’m pretty sure that when WA reformed its licencing laws last month they changed those procedures so a single over zealous neighbour couldn’t shut down live music.
It really is ridiculous when the cost for a nightclub licence is $60 000 and the cost of a hotel licence is less than a tenth of that cost. It’s good that there will be changes but the reforms have really taken their sweet time. It’s been stalled for years and I think NSW is the last state that is yet to reform its laws.
I’d still actually like a bit more detail on the proposals. The Departmental website only has a summary of the proposal from 2005 and didn’t look like it went far enough. Hopefully the situation is rectified but I’m just going to be cautiously optimistic for the time being.
Sydney pub scene is breathtakingly bad. Bogans in rugger-bugger dresses from Rooty Hill to Circular Quay.
Or I’ve just got bogan mates who never take me anywhere interesting. Yeah I know, probably the latter- regardless, good luck getting the licencing laws changed. Uphill but well worth it.
You can see the public policy quandrary of course: live music and culture or retarded staring at machines ruining lives and blowing family budgets down the hole.
I can see why left wing politicians find that such a quandrary.