Warning Grandma, those tea parties and piano playing in the church will need security....

I've written a paper (yet to be made public) on the media beat up over violence in inner city venues and finger pointing that it's all due to the blow ins from the burbs.  Lord Mayor Robert Doyle believes "all Melburnians are heartily sick of these vicious cowards coming in and trying to take over our city, well we won't let them …. I think banning of people summarily from the city, moving them out of the city if they look like they are a danger or a problem … is a good solution.” He called on police to stop troublemakers from the outer suburbs travelling to the city.  My paper suggests some common sense, level headed strategic changes that may prevent violence.  But in the meantime, it appears regulators have decided to punish entertainment venues, with new legislation requiring any entertainment gatherings to have security, one per 100 people. So even if 10 people turn up, security must be present. And the security must be licensed, from a registered security firm (not cousin Vinnie from down the road).  This poses additional unforeseen costs to venues many of which are typically small, owner operated businesses that work on thin margins.

Proposed changes to the regulation of such events mean that even if a few grannies get together, say for a tea party in a local hall and someone there will be playing piano, they will need to hire a security guard.  Yep those grannies can get mighty whacky and wild!  And in the bush it's pretty hard to find licensed security guards.....  Is this the end of the country dance?


I emailed a submission to the Minister about the proposed changes. It's attached and was a near copy of a pro forma protest letter doing the rounds. I got a reply from the Minister, attached.  It basically says the protest is not relevant.  hmmm.  Is this buck pushing?  But there have been some wins, for example the Sydney City council appears to have been quite open to negotiation, cutting the need for another regulation that requires fees to be paid to Council to compensate venue owners for hiring additional security.


But in Victoria, it's not a case of lock up your grannies, the liquor licensors may do it for you....


!!! CALL SECURITY!!!!!!!