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Victorian ALP

On these pages find reports about the now-defunct ALP government’s handling of the mess that was their new liquor licensing arrangements.

Find specific information in the links on the left, and some media reports below.

Jon Faine
ABC radio 774 morning presenter Jon Faine interviewed Sue MacLellan on Friday 22/1/10. You can download the interview here: A CFA Bungle .. and the Liquor Licensing Boss Takes on her Critics - it’s a 14.3 MB mp3, the interview is in the second half and the bit about music is right at the end.

Faine also spoke of the licensing issues in his weekly video blog, also 22/1, which is here: Jon Faine's video blog - Small business suffering under Liquor Licensing regime.

Here’s what he says about licensing, in his video blog:

The evolving story of the state government's, I think you'd have to say, clumsy attempts to reform the liquor licensing regime and the fees has been quite remarkable.

In my experience I can't remember a flood of emails, a flurry of emails, just a constant stream, from people affected, from suburban bottle shops, to people just offering a glass of sherry at a B&B, through to people running picnics… just every area of the consumption if liquor in our community finding that they're not happy with the new regime that the state government's put in place.

AudioTechnology magazine
This article The State of Play, Pause, Stop: Victoria, from November’s issue and republished online, makes interesting reading. Here are some samples:

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.

and

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.

If music can make us violent I guess lamingtons could, too.

Pages for further reading
Accord
John Brumby
Matt Viney