Dear Hon. Nathan Rees, I am saddened to learn that Sydney has enforced a trial lockout in order to curb street violence at night.
As a regular visitor to Sydney I am well aware that it is this vibrant nightlife that is the lifeblood of the city’s thriving music scene. This scene has nurtured artists as diverse as Sarah Blasko and the Grammy winning Wolfmother to iconic Australian acts like Midnight Oil and helped put Australian music on the global map.As a resident of Melbourne, I can assure you that any reduction in violent street crime during our trial lockout was due to the immense police presence (often mounted police) on what felt like every street corner for the duration of the trial. With this in mind, I urge you not to quote statistics from our trial as the accuracy of them cannot be determined.
However, in Melbourne the drop in punters willing to support their local musicians and artists was painfully obvious.
As the Minister for the Arts, I am sure I don’t need to explain to you the importance of supporting new talent. As radio has turned its back on up and coming artists the local live circuit is more important than ever.
As the Editorial Director of Undercover Media (http://www.undercover.com.au) my colleagues and I often travel to Europe, Asia and America and are proud of the Australian talent that is getting noticed over there. These are talents that have learned their craft in the Australian pubs and bars and this is why Australian music is so respected overseas. Without venues like the The Oxford Arts Factory, The Lansdowne, The Hopetoun (or Hoey as it is so affectionately called), The Annandale or any number of great rooms your wonderful city has to offer the world’s eyes would not have been on Australia when Wolfmother accepted their Grammy or when Sir Elton John called PNAU to congratulate them on “the best thing he’s heard from Australia in ten years.”
On my overseas journeys I have visited the world’s largest music conferences like South by Southwest in Austin, Texas and Popkomm in Berlin. At these conferences a large portion of Australian artists hail from either Sydney or Melbourne not because of a lack of talent elsewhere, but because our cities provide these artists with opportunities to hone their craft and get noticed on both a national and global scale. This is why I choose to live between Melbourne and Sydney. This is why almost every friend I can name in both cities chooses to live where they do.
I am proud to say that I have introduced artists to industry in Sydney’s Q-Bar late late at night after watching a performance. It is this post-show mingling that makes things happen and it would be a terrible loss not just to Sydney but all of Australia to see this scene dispersed and threatened.
So please Mr. Rees, I urge you to look at other options. As the Minister for the Arts I hope you will take my points on board. I enjoy traveling to Sydney for work. I enjoy visiting friends in Sydney and most of all I enjoy seeing the local music Sydney has to offer and I hope to continue enjoying all that Sydney has to offer for a long time to come.
Yours sincerely,
Tim Cashmere
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Should you want to write to Mr. Rees expressing your opinions of the lockout, his contact details are as follows:
Ministerial Office
Telephone: (02) 9228 5239
Fax: (02) 9228 3935
Email: thepremier@www.nsw.gov.au
Street Address:
Governor Macquarie Tower
Level 40, 1 Farrer Place, SYDNEY NSW 2000
Postal Address:
GPO BOX 5341, SYDNEY NSW 2001
