Party town: Labor promises $2m package to help venues, encourage more events

Labor will extend its liquor licence fee concession to more venues and unlock and activate public spaces across the city as part of a $2 million package to spark up Canberra’s hospitality and entertainment sector, particularly after dark.

Announcing the initiatives at Bar Rochford in the city, Minister for the Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy Tara Cheyne said Labor’s next stage of reforms would cover restaurants and cafes, and more events venues.

This follows initiatives in August for the live music scene that increased noise limits in the city and offered 80 per cent discounts on liquor licence fees for small and medium-sized venues that have a capacity to 150 and host a minimum of 10 events in a year.

Ms Cheyne said Labor would now offer a 50 per cent liquor fee reduction to venues that have a capacity up to 350 and support and showcase artists across the city.

Smaller cafes and restaurants with up to 150 capacity would benefit from an automatic 50 per cent liquor fee reduction.

This would save businesses up to around $3800 a year and encourage more businesses to open.

“We want our venues to stay open later and we want new entrants into the market as well,” Ms Cheyne said.

She said that if re-elected, Labor would introduce these incentives in January 2025.

Margins for venues and restaurants were tighter than ever, and bookings and ticket sales “lumpy”, she said.

“It’s places like Bar Rochford that do so much to stimulate night-time activity in Canberra that will benefit from this,” she said.

Ms Cheyne said the incentives could also encourage venues to extend their hours and create even more economic and social activity.

She said Labor would also make it easier for venues to access the discount by establishing a register of performing and exhibiting artists they could draw on for performances and events.

“So it’s a symbiotic relationship,” she said. “It’s giving venues the opportunity to take advantage of a significant discount, and also giving our artists more opportunity to exhibit, to perform, to grow their own audience base and to help the sustainability of their business.”

Labor would also open up sites across the city for markets, busking, food trucks and other activities, ensure services such as power and water, and cut red tape for event approvals.

Ms Cheyne said the City Centre Entertainment Precinct, established in August, would be the template for other precincts to be set up in the Town Centres.

She said a Labor government would assess its performance over the next year in the expectation it could be applied to other areas of Canberra such as the industrial area in Belconnen, which has the Pot Belly and The Bay.

“We want to give some certainty to businesses in those areas that have a long history of stimulating nightlife that they are protected and can promote the noise that their venues create because of the entertainment value that they bring,” she said.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said liquor licence discounts would amount to about $1.5 million of forgone revenue over four years, while about $500,000 would go into a fund to improve public sites for events, including the connection of utilities.

Mr Barr said there had been remarkably strong growth in the sector but cost-of-living pressures meant it was important government did more.

“This package is about setting Canberra’s hospitality sector, its night-time economy, up for a further period of significant growth,” he said.

“That’s important economically, it’s important for the employment it creates and I think it’s really important socially and culturally for us to be a city that can attract and retain young people. And that’s critical to so many other elements of our plans for Canberra.”

Australian Hotels Association ACT branch general manager Chris Gatfield said the incentives would allow people to invest in their businesses to present more live music and encourage others to take up the offer and program live entertainment.

“We want Canberra to be more lively later, louder and with more live music venues,” Mr Gatfield said.

“We think it’s a huge step in the right direction.”

Mr Gatfield said the AHA also welcomed the plan to create more entertainment districts across Canberra.

“We’re right in the middle of Canberra’s number-one nightlife district, but we all know that nightlife is not contained just within the city,” he said. “So, you know, we’d love to see more and more of these.”

The ACT Greens have pledged to set up four more entertainment precincts in Belconnen, Molonglo, Woden and Tuggeranong and at EPIC.