Motions

Local and Live Creative Venues

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (23:11): I move:

1. That a select committee of the Legislative Council be established to inquire into and report on local and live creative venues, with particular reference to:

(a) the impacts of, and reasons for, recent loss of live music and local creative venues in South Australia;

(b) understanding the cultural, social, economic and other contributions made by local and live creative venues;

(c) supporting South Australian artists and creatives with venues and spaces where they can develop their craft, audiences and communities;

(d) understanding the types of cultural infrastructure needed for a healthy art, culture and creative sector in South Australia;

(e) protecting local and live creative venues and performance spaces; and

(f) any other related matters.

2. That this council permits the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it sees fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being presented to the council.

I rise to speak on this motion calling for a select committee to be established to inquire and report on live and local creative venues—not just live music but especially live music: creative industries. Again and again, we hear of local and live venues who are struggling and closing their doors. These venues are the home of live music, performances, cabaret, comedy, concerts, galleries and our broader creative culture. These spaces represent much more than just the physical space that they inhabit; they are the spaces that fuel creativity in this state. These spaces grow culture, and culture needs a home.

As many of you would know in this council, I have a particular interest in local live music. My staff have written a note that says that I have fond memories of going to local gigs. I still go to gigs, actually, even though I am much older now, but I have been to a fair few more gigs in my youth than I go to right now. This is where we get to hear a range of music, some of which we love and some not so much.

The experience of going to see a local gig at a live music venue, listening to local bands or seeing a local comedian or going to a show where we do not know what is going to happen, is formative for so many of us. These venues become communities. They are where we find our people, our tribes, and it is no surprise that they form such an important part of many people's lives. Local and live venues have been hit from so many angles. COVID hit them hard. They are being left behind with a focus on so-called major events.

These venues and the local artists who perform and create in them are being left to fend for themselves at the moment. We know that they are struggling. The Australasian Performing Rights Association has published some sombre statistics. South Australia's rate of live music venue closures is the second highest of all of the states in Australia. We now have 27 per cent fewer licensed live music venues than we had compared with 2018. Out of COVID, our live music industry is really struggling.

That number represents more than just hundreds of closed doors; it is the loss of opportunity for artists to get even a foot in the door. It is the loss of community, it is the loss of audiences, it is the loss of a rite of passage for many young people.

I am pleased that the Cranker is now facing a much more certain future. Indeed, I have spent far too much time in the Cranker, and I hope to spend a fair bit of time there in the future. I do congratulate the Malinauskas government for ensuring that the Cranker does have a future.

However, even if they are to relocate for a time as part of that process, it has to be acknowledged that the public outcry, the hours of time—the hundreds of hours of time—and the thousands of people that went into protecting it are not able to be replicated for every venue. There does need to be other supports put in place and, in order to do that, we need to hear from those venues about how they are operating, how they are facing the current post-COVID struggle and what it is that they need from the government and from the parliament.

Other creative spaces have had impacts far beyond their physical footprint, spaces like the Mill, which I encourage all members of this council to go visit. The Mill provides studio spaces for artists and designers to create. They offer residencies, affordable photography studios, a small performance space, a black room, a black space, a sound studio, a gallery, and even a little bit of yoga if you like that. These spaces have become hubs, and socialising becomes collaboration with these artists. It leads to diverse and innovative arts practices. It is something that is incredibly important to our community and is currently under threat.

We need these spaces, from large venues where the performers aspire to eventually perform to those tiny corner galleries that allow an artist the opportunity to take those first steps or to exhibit their first works and create their craft, to hone their craft and to actually be part of a community that creates a better culture for us all.

While I call for this inquiry tonight into venues, I also have a motion here that considers temporary creative venues, those that form part of the Fringe, such as, for example, Gluttony or the Garden of Unearthly Delights. These large-scale temporary venues do create an ecosystem and they are distinct from bricks and mortar venues, but they do also face similar challenges and so we need to hear their voices as well.

We also seem to see larger music festivals suffer currently. Obviously, we have seen the news of Harvest Rock for this year being the latest festival in this country to pull the plug. There is a live music and a creative industries ecosystem in crisis right now. This parliament deserves and should afford that sector to have their voices heard. We are seeing live and local venues struggle at every level. Unless we take the time to understand what is happening and what is required, we are only going to watch it get worse. We must ensure that culture has a home and that we give culture a home.

That is why I move this motion tonight, and I will note that, for example, the See It LIVE Music Activation Fund recipients of recent years include some wonderful venues such as the Wheatsheaf Hotel, the Ancient World, Grace Emily Hotel, Jive, the Semaphore Workers Club, Rhino Room and the Lowlife Bar, Murray Delta Juke Joint, the Three Brothers Arms, Exeter Hotel, Big Easy Radio, Lion Arts Factory, UniBar Adelaide, Broadcast Bar, the Gov, Arthur Art Bar, Woodshed, Nexus Arts, My Lover Cindi, Confession, and Prompt Creative Centre, who quite rightly were awarded and received significant amounts of money from the state government to see them thrive.

But I would say that My Lover Cindi has gone under and Confession only now operates on an events basis and is not open week to week. They are just two of the sorts of venues that we should be seeing continue to thrive but, despite the fact that they were given a government grant, they have gone under in the last year.

Confession, for example, was a cabaret venue, so it does not fit the definition of a live music venue in terms of a live music pub. It had arts and it had culture, and now it can only continue to operate on a events basis. It is not open in the regular way that it was. Again, Broadcast Bar or Arthur Art Bar hold art shows, and even the Cranker, which has been much celebrated for its live music contribution—and I celebrate that as well—actually provides a really important stage, that small stage, for live comedy.

Unless we look at arts as more than just a band on a stage on a Friday or Saturday night we are going to lose the cultural hubs that these bricks-and-mortar venues provide, because arts and culture is much more than bricks and mortar, but it certainly needs a home of bricks and mortar as well. That is why I move this motion tonight and I trust that the government, having come to the party to save the Cranker, will see a reason to save our live culture as well. With that, I commend the motion.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.