Sydney live music venues could benefit from noise complaint laws already implemented by London, Melbourne and San Francisco.
The Keep Sydney Open Party has announced the ‘agent of change’ principle will be its core policy, a law that would protect certain venues from noise complaints.
The principle offers “a simple approach to handling noise-related disputes involving cultural venues”, where “the most recent arrival to an area is the ‘agent of change’, and is thus responsible for noise attenuation measures”.
Meaning, if a new apartment building pops up near a pre-existing music venue, the apartment building is responsible for sound attenuation.
Keep Sydney Open has said the current system is “is opaque and marred by ambiguity and excessive regulation” and implementing ‘agent of change’ would “create clear guidelines around costs, required actions and responsibilities”.
KSO has also said a broader approach must be taken in order to tackle the current live music crisis in Sydney, with the party also wanting a stocktake of culturally significant venues, state funding for those venues threatened by noise complains and mandatory soundproofing for developments and redevelopments near existing venues.
“Venues are closing en masse and the State’s artistic and cultural heritage is being decimated in the process,” Keep Sydney Open spokesperson Tyson Koh said.
“NSW is crying out for a fair, consistent, and above all transparent approach to issues involving noise from venues.
“This is already a serious issue. As the city densifies it will only get worse. We need a forward-thinking policy to mitigate this problem now.”
The State election will take place on March 23.
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