Page 2529 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 31 July 2019
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issue back into play, closely followed by the arts policy framework review and the ACT noise zone review.
Before I run out of breath, there was also in 2015 the Cool little capital report from MusicACT in the Live Music Office. We had completely forgotten about this one until we started preparing for this but in early 2015 Mr Rattenbury gave the issue a really good shove with his motion which, when we look back at Hansard, has a hell of a lot in common with this motion.
Of course, the Assembly agreed, but nothing has been done. We have had a panorama of case studies and reviews that have basically been gathering dust on the government’s bookshelves. All the while, the government continues to worry about how it can extract more rates, more land taxes, record levels of stamp duty and an increasing bunch of levies from the people of Canberra.
In doing so, these have served to make people’s lives, on occasions, somewhat miserable. We think there should be more music. We need to stand back and look at what is happening in our capital. The government is pathologically committed to the destruction of the bush capital character of our great home. We are cramming residential structures into suffocatingly compact precincts, creating a risk of lifeless ghetto-like living environments that are bereft of social amenity, character and vibrancy.
The people living in these density points will expect their approximate spaces not only to have the right sorts of community facilities but also access to entertainment and leisure environments. Live music will be an important ingredient in meeting those expectations and I think genuinely enhancing the quality of living amenity. We need to remind ourselves that live music, as a leisure experience, is nothing new in our culture. It has been around for a long time.
I should say that the Canberra Liberals are not opposed to high residential density developments in town centres so long as there is proper consultation with the public and the creation of a balance between amenity, liveability and sense of wellbeing. The only way that stale or rundown town centres can be revitalised and made enjoyable places to live is to provide them with access to a range of cultural, entertainment and live music venues. We think it is very important.
Current demographic metrics in the ACT starkly demonstrate that demand for live music could be quite significant. According to the latest ABS data for the ACT, population statistics indicate that there were more than 100,000 residents in the 20 to 34-year-old age bracket. There are a lot more if you broaden this to the 40-year-old down to 18-year-old bracket. According to the recent snapshot by ACT Tourism for the year ending December 2018, there were almost three million overnight visitors to the territory.
Yet in the decade since this Assembly has been having this conversation—in the 10 years that we have been having this conversation!—the number of live music venues has halved. Think about how extensively the population has risen in that time. Yet the number of live music venues has halved. Can you imagine what this city’s
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