Venues exist within a co-regulatory environment across liquor, planning and environmental protection laws.
The usual practice is for these provisions to be developed without consideration of how they will interact with the other regulations.
The Live Music Forum established by the Victorian State Government brings all these parties together with the live music sector to identify issues and prepare informed policy responses.
This type of co-regulation partnership has precedents in other areas of government nationally, but not for the live music sector.
A similar model would be a most important initiative for other states and territories where recommendations for state law reform to better support the development of the local live music sector have been tabled. These include the Future of Music in South Australia – Thinkers in Residence Reverb Report by Martin Elbourne, ACT Standing Committee on Planning, Public Works and Territory and Municipal Services Inquiry into Live Community Events, and The City of Sydney Live Music and Performance Taskforce Action Plan.
With EPA Victoria and the Department of Environment and Primary Industries review of the two State Environment Protection Policies for noise underway, as well an evaluation and consideration of venue definitions as the agent-of-change provisions under planning guidelines commences, The Victorian Live Music Forum should be maintained to ensure that the good work so far to support the Victorian live music sector continues.
