Page 257 - Week 01 - Thursday, 12 February 2015
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arise in these situations may well get worse. That is why I am keen to move this issue forward so that we can continue to see the improvement of night-life and live music venues while being mindful of the way our city is changing.
We have certainly seen live music venues that have had to close where noise has been a major contributing factor. These include the Asylum, the Terrace Bar, the Gypsy Bar and Toast. Other venues, such as the George Harcourt Inn in Nicholls, Suburban in Dickson, Transit Bar, and even the convention centre and venues in New Acton, are all areas where tensions have arisen. There is certainly an issue around resolving the issues and finding ways to ameliorate problems for some of these areas.
We need to think about an area such as Braddon, for example. It has traditionally been zoned as a light industrial and commercial area, and that has enabled some of these businesses to operate. We are now seeing Braddon transform. On the whole I am very positive about the way Braddon is transforming. It is such an incredibly popular area. If you go there now at night it is very vibrant; there are a lot of people around. There is a really positive sense in the air and there is some very innovative business going on.
There is also the development of apartments taking place in Braddon, right on Lonsdale Street and on Mort Street. As people move in, they are presumably moving there because they want to be in Braddon as a vibrant area, but, as we have seen both in Canberra and in other places, some of those residents then start to make complaints about the noise in the area. So the very reason why they have moved there becomes an issue which they are also complaining about. We need to think about zoning issues and possibly the designation of night-life precincts so that we can have some certainty and so that these areas can continue to flourish.
That brings me to the principle of order of occupancy legislation. That is something that has been floated as a way of addressing the issue of people moving into an area where noise already exists. The premise here is that there is a limit on the ability of people who have come after the development of some of these venues to complain. This has been suggested for some of the areas I have been talking about.
However, it is not a perfect principle; people still start to complain. For example, there may be an existing set of venues, but if new venues want to arrive and innovate, how do they fit in to that equation? How can we bind people who might move in further down the line?
These are issues that need to be resolved and they require further work. I am certainly not suggesting they are easy questions to answer, but the sooner we start to work on these issues and look at other jurisdictions and their experience, the better off we will be in terms of trying to avoid some of the conflicts that might come down the line.
Soundproofing is another area that I think is worthy of further investigation. It is, of course, possible to block much of the noise from music venues with soundproofing measures, which, in addition, provide energy efficiency benefits—things like double-glazing and insulation. Best-practice soundproofing should become a requirement in all new residential developments in commercial areas as well. There is scope to look
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