Live music venues are calling on government to intervene on skyrocketing insurance premiums that have led to strict “no dancing while drinking” conditions and venue closures.
Yarra City Council will next week debate a motion to explore whether local government could find, or advocate for, more affordable insurance policies for nighttime venues in suburbs like Collingwood and Fitzroy to keep the music scene alive.
Nick Murnane, gig booker at the Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy.Credit: Jason South
Venues are pushing for the state government to use its own insurer to secure coverage for them at an accessible price.
Last month The Age revealed the crippling toll insurance was having on local venues in the inner north – including at The Old Bar in Fitzroy, which saw its insurance premiums jump from $10,000 a year to $60,000, and led to a ban on people dancing with a drink in their hand in the venue’s small band room.
Independent councillor Stephen Jolly, who will present the motion, said he believed the council had a responsibility to help venues that were a large part of the municipality’s economy.
“Yarra is the hub of live music in Melbourne. If these venues go down the gurgler because they’ve been squeezed by insurance companies, then not only is that a massive cultural blow for inner-city culture and the nighttime economy, but it’s an economic hit too,” he said.
Liam Matthews, owner of The Old Bar, was slugged $60,000 a year for liability insurance, a sixfold increase on the $10,000 he paid just two years ago.Credit: Penny Stephens
“They employ local people as security, as roadies, bar staff – the bands themselves. And what’s next? The insurance companies saying, ‘You can’t hold a drink when you’re at The Peel at three in the morning having a boogie?’ It’s part of Yarra culture – we can’t just wash our hands.”
Nick Murnane, gig booker at The Evelyn Hotel on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, is worried about the future of small music venues in the neighbourhood and has seen the insurance shock firsthand.
“I also work for the Eastern Hotel in Ballarat and we actually had to close for six months [because of insurance issues],” he said. “Insurance there jumped from $7000 to $75,000 in 2022.”
Murnane said premiums for The Evelyn have also increased – although not to the same extreme – but renewal notices are due soon, and insurance is near the top of a long list of worries for Melbourne’s live music venues.
“Bands have to get their own public liability to play, that’s pushing up guarantees, and then we have the cost-of-living crisis on top of that, where numbers are still 60 per cent down, and drinking is down 70 per cent per head,” he said.
“It’s just looking a bit grim; we’re just hanging onto those two or three shows a month to pay the rest of the month off. ”
Recently closed East Brunswick live music venue Whole Lotta Love saw an increase from just under $3000 a year to almost $30,000.
Simone Schinkel, CEO of Music Victoria, said insurance problems were not a new issue for live music venues, but many businesses were beginning to speak out as the crisis reached a tipping point.
She welcomed any advocacy at local council level, but said due to the widespread nature of the problem, her organisation was focusing lobbying efforts on the state government via its own insurer, the Victorian Management Insurance Authority.
“The Victorian government was one of the only governments to come through for our industry during COVID when there was a market failure [for insurance],” Schinkel said.
“I think it’s now come to be their problem because of where we are and what we risk. Time is running out.”
The vast majority of councils in Victoria are insured by an arm of the peak body, the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV), which itself was set up to provide affordable insurance to councils when the commercial market could not.
MAV’s general manager of insurance, Owen Harvey-Beavis, said the organisation had a statutory requirement “to provide only to public authorities and not any other private entities”.
The Australian Live Music Business Council (ALMBC), which was created out of the crisis the pandemic created for live music venues, said insurance hikes were the biggest issue the peak body was grappling with.
But ALMBC board member and insurance expert Andrew Bassingthwaighte said he thought government-backed insurance was an unlikely prospect.
“It sets a very dangerous precedent for governments though – because other industries may ask why they aren’t included,” he said.
Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brook did not respond to a question about whether the state would consider offering insurance, instead saying regulating the insurance industry occurred at a federal level.
In a statement, Brooks said “our vibrant live music venues are the lifeblood of many communities across Victoria” and pointed to $34 million in the last budget to support 10,000 gigs at local music venues across metro and regional Victoria.
The office of Federal Arts Minister Tony Burke did not respond to a request for comment.
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