Will it be a ground-breaking week for live music in Sydney?

This could be a ground-breaking week in NSW Parliament for Sydney’s emergence as a 24-hour city and a return as a live music city.

The new 24 Hour Economy Liquor Amendment Bill, which will provide the back-end of the 24-hour economy, will be debated in the Upper House.

In the meantime, shadow minister for music and the night-time economy John Graham’s similar Right to Play Music Bill is expected to also be debated in the Lower House this week after being successfully passed by the Legislative Council last Wednesday (October 14).

The new laws in their current shape have changes that streamline approvals for small bars, shift functions in the noise complaints process and remove some entertainment conditions from liquor licenses on venues.

They prohibit the long-standing practice of regulating what styles of music a venue can present, and how many musicians and what instruments can be played in licensed premises.

But they fall short of scrapping them entirely, leaving many venues with restrictions.

An opposition amendment introduced to strike out all entertainment conditions in greater NSW was voted down in the Lower House.

The Live Music Office and APRA AMCOS have been quietly lobbying behind-the-scenes to build the case for a strong regulatory framework for the 24 Hour economy strategy.

“We need to support the NSW government and agencies to take this opportunity for generational change,” John Wardle from the Live Music Office told TMN.

“We are big supporters of the state government 24 Hour Economy Strategy for greater Sydney and it’s important that a comprehensive list of tools are provided through better regulation to achieve what are shared priorities for the tiers of government, the music and hospitality industries and across the political spectrum also.

“After four Parliamentary inquiries, numerous round tables and very thorough reports, six years of lockouts in Sydney, and now in 2020 the global pandemic, the legislation debated in the parliament this week provides the opportunity to take bold and necessary steps to deliver what are universally recognised reforms to the way live music and performance are supported in NSW.”

John Graham’ Right to Play Music Bill aims to get rid of a similar array of venue restrictions. He said that last year’s Parliamentary Inquiry found 699 venues in NSW faced these.

“Labor’s view is that it is not the government’s role to ban music, or to tell people what genre of music to listen to,” the shadow minister contends.

“This is about removing the red tape for our musicians across all communities. It’s about creating jobs, hope and a plan for the future.”

Another state government initiative Great Southern Nights, in partnership with ARIA, announced on the weekend that it now includes of 2,500 artists and 300-plus live music venues in over 130 NSW towns through November.

The gigs will be in music venues, pubs, bars, theatres, restaurants, bowling clubs and wineries.

Jobs Minister Stuart Ayres said the NSW Government is proud to be getting artists, roadies, venues, hospitality staff and tourism businesses back to work through this ambitious initiative.

“Now it’s over to the public to show their support by booking tickets to a gig or two,” he said.