Despite promises made to Melbourne’s live music scene that its venues would be protected from the threat of residential development and noise complaints through the implementation of the ‘Agent of Change’ principle, the coveted policy has yet to materialise… and activists are starting to lose their patience.
Live music lobby group SLAM have publicly criticised Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy of “failing” to deliver on implementing the proverbial holy grail of live music reforms, where the onus is placed on property developers and residents new to an area to shoulder the cost of soundproofing rather than making it the responsibility of targeted venues.
In a statement issued to media yesterday, SLAM said they had “lost faith” in Minister Guy due to his inaction on implementing the Agent of Change principle, telling Parliament as far back as December that whether “through a state amendment or a local planning scheme amendment, we will find a way” to implement the reforms, then telling media in January that the changes would be actioned in approximately “six or seven weeks.”
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“The Minister promised to ‘work over the summer period’. We’re now in deep Winter and still the government has delivered nothing,” said SLAM’s Helen Marcou, who along with representatives from Music Victoria and Fair Go 4 Live Music, had tabled meetings with the Minister in January and February.
“In the seven months since that promise to Parliament, the Minister for Planning has failed to deliver. We’ve been patient with the government and this Minister for Planning – but no longer,” she adds. “The State Government has been asleep at the wheel on agent of change, placing venues and other businesses under financial stress and jobs at risk.”
Minister Guy has since fired back at SLAM, responding in a statement: “I’m very disappointed at comments in the press and on social media made by SLAM today and I urge them to do the right thing by their stakeholders and comment more positively about the actions the government has been taking.”
Mr Guy explains that he’s still working towards implementing the reforms alongside Planning Minister Ryan Smith and Liquor And Gaming Minister Edward O’Donohue; “we have an appropriate process in place through which we are working with groups such as Music Victoria and SLAM to reach this outcome shortly.”
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According to The Music, Music Victoria have also been invited by the Department Of Planning office to review the latest proposals for the live music reforms in a meeting on Friday morning, in a bid to reach final negotiations sooner rather than later.
Music Victoria CEO Patrick Donovan was hopeful that the meeting will speed up reforms, saying the industry had reached “crisis point” in demanding swift implementation of the Agent of Change. “We’re getting calls every two day from terrified venues, with developments going up next door [to them],” he said.
Residential developments that have already been given the green light by the Planning Department without consideration for music venues, explains Ms Marcou.
“The planning system has an important role to play in protecting new development from existing noise, but the system is continually failing new residents and the music community and all of this has happened under Matthew Guy’s watch,” she says.
“He’s smooth with words but short on action. He’s letting everyone down – the music industry, the music loving public, residents, and he’s embarrassing his Ministerial colleagues,” she added.
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The news arrives at the same time that Melbourne’s rock n roll institution, Cherry Bar in AC/DC Lane, launches an appeal to the music-loving public to play ‘White Knight’, helping pitch in a third of the $90,000 soundproofing costs ahead of residents moving into a 12-storey residential apartment complex overlooking the venue this August; an attempt to avoid a very public noise complaint battle that places the long-standing rock bar under threat.
“It really is not fair that the venue has to pay for this sound-proofing. It should be the developers’ cost,” Cherry co-owner James Young said yesterday. “And it’s not fair that we have to turn to the cash-strapped public and ask for their help to contribute half of our building costs, but I’ve sat through dozens of well intentioned meetings that go round and round in circles without ever providing a solution for the poor threatened live music venues.”
“as it stands agent of change doesn’t count for (anything). As soon as we get a single complaint we are in breach and could be shut down. We have no protection and we decided we just had to bite the bullet and pay for the works.”
