Live music petition


On April 7, 2010,musicians spanning many generations delivered a petition signed by almost 22,000 people to Sue Pennicuik, Greens spokeswoman for the arts, on the steps of Parliament.

The petition was organised by FairGo4LiveMusic. The signatures came in via the red letter-box being held aloft at the Tote rally, collectors at the SLAM rally, the ToneDeaf online petition and by numerous other people collecting signatures and sending them in. It was a huge effort.

The petition requests that:
  1. the Victorian government institute a proper investigation into the causes of violence and drunkenness;
  2. until such investigation is undertaken and concluded, the government remove all references to 'live and amplified music' from the licence amenity clause on liquor licences;
  3. the government formulate a cultural policy that promotes and maintains Melbourne as Australia's capital for live music.

Here's a video of the handover—music is by Pikelet:



Speeches in Parliament
A week later on April 13 Sue presented the petition to the Legislative Council, and on the following day, April 14, she moved a motion that the Council take note of the petition. Sue is a member of the Legislative Council (the upper house), Southern Metropolitan.

Moving that the Council take note of the petition gave Sue an opportunity to make a speech in a debate about the issues, and she gave a GREAT speech. You can find her speech in the Greens section of this website: Petition speech by Sue Pennicuik or go to the Greens website: Liquor Licensing: Live Music Venues

The second speaker in the debate was the ALP's Matt Viney. What an astonishingly strange speech that was! Find it here: Matt Viney's petition speech.

There were a couple of other speakers—find the Hansard for the whole debate here: Proof version

Results
The Premier has agreed to recognise the online petitions as well as the approx 9,000 paper ones. We'll have to wait and see if there are any other outcomes.