City Amenity Under Threat
The Nightclub Owners Forum has today released a comprehensive 79 page Discussion Paper on the Amenity of the Melbourne CBD. The paper is available on the Nightclub Owners Forum website: http://www.nightclubownersforum.com/adocacypapers.html together with the list of venues subject to, and exempted from the Brumby Government’s 2am lockout trial fiasco in 2008.
These lists were kept secret by both the Brumby and Baillieu Governments until obtained recently by the Nightclub Owners Forum under Freedom of Information.
According to prominent Melbourne Nightclub Owner, Peter Iwaniuk “These lists have enabled the Nightclub Owners Forum to undertake vital statistical analysis to highlight the true facts about Melbourne’s vibrant late night entertainment industry and inform research in the Discussion paper”.
The discussion paper is highly critical of the Baillieu Government for:
· Ignoring serious conflicts between planning law and the Liquor Act
· Threatening the viability of Victoria’s hospitality industry by recently amending the definition of amenity in Liquor Act without consultation and buried in other legislative change
· inappropriate and possible illegal enforcement practices of Victoria Police in relation to amenity
· the impact on the quality of amenity in Melbourne by poor public policy and the lack of investment in night time infrastructure by the Brumby and Baillieu Governments, including the recent late night taxi debacle.
· being ignorant of the true elements of the ‘amenity’ of Melbourne in regards to City activity, population, visitor and tourism profiles, and not commissioning adequate research into this area
The discussion paper highlights many interesting facts about Melbourne and their relevance to the amenity of Melbourne at night.
· The combined capacity of all of Melbourne’s pubs and clubs that trade past 1am is estimated to be around 60,000 persons roughly the same as the Crown Entertainment complex in its own right. The highlights the potential direct and impact of Crown Casino on the amenity of the City
· 29% of international tourists and 19% of domestic tourists placed ‘pubs/clubs/discos’ within their top ten attractions in Melbourne. Interestingly, international tourists did not rate the Casino at all in their top ten attractions and it only scraped in at number 10 for domestic tourists with only an 8% rating. Clearly, visitors to Melbourne prefer socialisation and entertainment to gambling.
· Nearly 300,000 people visit the City on a weekend night according to estimates by the City of Melbourne. Given that the combined capacity of all of Melbourne’s pubs and clubs, and Crown Casino is around 120,000 it means that there are many people who visit Melbourne to wander the streets and hang around hot spots such as Flinders Street station. It also highlights the vulnerability of people trapped in the City because of the inadequacy of public transport.
· The median age of the City of Melbourne’s population is only 28
· 61% of the City of Melbourne’s population is in the 15 – 34 age bracket and this is the biggest growing age bracket. Between 2001 and 2006 this bracket increased by an astonishing 64%.
· Between 2001 and 2006 the City of Melbourne’s population in the 15 – 24 age bracket increased by over 50%
· The largest group of Melbourne residents is in the 21 – 25 age bracket (16,850 in 2006)
· The largest number of 16 – 20 year olds (4,670) and 21 – 25 year olds (5,550) live in the CBD
· Most young people up to the age of 25 were born overseas (52% or 14,500)
· A large proportion of these young people are international students
· 97% of young people up to the age of 25 are single
· 86% of young people up to the age of 25 live in rental accommodation.
· As the average household size for all ages is only 1.9 persons, this would indicate that many young people live alone.
“These statistics clearly suggest that there is a strong demand from predominantly young Melbourne residents for night time socialisation outlets and entertainment” stressed Mr Iwaniuk.
Mr Iwaniuk has issued a blunt warning to the Baillieu Government to immediately:
· Adopt a new more appropriate definition of amenity in the Liquor Act and Planning and Environment Act 1987 (see Attachment 1)
· Correct the anomalies between the Liquor Act and the Melbourne Planning Scheme in relation to noise and protect licensed premises that have existing use rights
· Cease the current dubious and possibly illegal practice of police and compliance officers issuing infringement notices for so called breaches of amenity under the Liquor Act.
· Reform current policing strategies by rationalising the excessive and poorly coordinated special task forces targeting licensed venues and put increased resources into policing of City Streets, public places and public transport to improve external amenity and safety
· Allocate appropriate resources to meet late night demand for public transport, public toilets, event and crowd management, street lighting, rubbish removal and street cleansing to improve the amenity of the external environment
· Recognise that the population and visitor profile of Melbourne is overwhelmingly young, both in terms of residents and night time visitors, and that this has should significantly influence the relative weighting in any consideration of amenity
· Undertake contemporary field research on the dynamics of late night entertainment precincts in inner Melbourne with a view to better understanding the amenity of the late night environment, who uses the City and why, and the factors which contribute positively and negatively to its amenity.
Mr Iwaniuk claimed “It is absolutely ludicrous that, under the recently added Section 3AA of the Liquor Act, incidents inside a licensed premises including swearing, littering and vandalism can be deemed to affect the amenity of the area outside a licensed premises and can be grounds for police to issue an infringement notice against a licensee.
“The recent example of Senator Stephen Conroy, Federal Minister for Communications, using the ‘F Word’ in a recent address to the National Press Club well illustrates the situation. Would the Press Club be prosecuted if it held a liquor licence in Victoria?” questioned Mr Iwaniuk.
The Nightclub Owners Forum has already written to Premier Baillieu (copy of this letter is available on the NOF website) and Fiona Patten President of the Australian Sex Party has sent an email letter to all Victorian MPs (a copy of which is attached to the Discussion Paper) protesting against this new law.
Both organisations have indicated that they will campaign strongly against the Government on this issue until common sense prevails.
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