Page 1155 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 30 May 2007
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government has established MusicACT, which represents and advocates for the interests of the local music industry.
The Environment Protection Authority and ACT Planning and Land Authority also play important roles in ensuring that our city is planned, built and managed to achieve an appropriate balance between the broader community’s desire to enjoy live music and the need to preserve amenity for residents, business and people.
Live music produces noise, and this is unavoidable. What is avoidable is the conflict between live music venues and their neighbours. There are indeed examples of healthy levels of live music in the ACT, but I believe that the government can do more to make it easier for venues to offer live music and not be discouraged by the restrictive limits on noise.
As with all policy, there needs to be a balancing of the competing interests of a number of parties; I understand that there is a need to balance residential amenity with the desire for vibrant culture and live music venues. However, I believe that the current levels of noise restrictions under the EPA are too low and should be adjusted for Civic. They should be adjusted for the four town centres also, and particularly for other suburbs where an increasing number of live music venues are being established, such as at Lyneham shops, with Tilley’s cafe and the Front cafe and gallery. Between 10 pm and 7 am from Monday to Saturday the level of noise for Lyneham cannot exceed 35 decibels.
To put this into context, the level in a quiet bedroom is between 20 and 30 decibels. Clearly, these are unrealistic limits for areas that have live music venues. It is impossible for a live music venue in Lyneham to operate without breaking the level of noise set out in the Environment Protection Act. If people wish to have live music during the week and on weekends, these restrictions should be raised to 50 db, which is the limit for Civic, and 45 db for other major town centres.
What I am alluding to here is the number of EPA exceptions for noise emitters. I have given some examples where the government has responded to live music initiatives, and some venues have survived and provided live music despite threats of closure. We cannot ignore the fact that noise from live music venues impacts on others; unwarranted noise can cause annoyance and sleep disturbance. However, changes to the EPA can ensure fairer and more balanced noise restrictions that can result in the growth of live music venues in Canberra—venues which make an invaluable addition to the culture and vitality of this wonderful capital city.
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (10.48): I am pleased to speak on the motion before the Assembly, although I notice that it has been on the notice paper for a couple of years, so I am interested in the critical urgency that does not seem to be attached to it. In this era, on this day, with major issues facing our community, one cannot help but wonder how this is the best the government can come up with as a matter for discussion. It is quite extraordinary, actually. It was put on the notice paper in June 2005. Anyway, I guess it is one way for Mr Gentleman to fill in the day.
In an age of CDs and portable MP3 players, live music is still going strong. There is still a great interest in seeing live music. There are still groupies, young and old, who
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