As PPN shareholders await the outcome of the VCAT hearing into...

As PPN shareholders await the outcome of the VCAT hearing into the BAR20 liquor licence, a recent complaint to the Ombudsman by the Nightclub Owners Forum indicates that the Vic State Government and its mates may be playing with a "stacked deck" against Bar20 and other King St clubs.

MINISTER EXPOSED ON STRIP CLUB LICENCE FEES
Thursday, 05 August 2010
http://www.eros.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1037&Itemid=14

Prominent Melbourne nightclub owner, Peter Iwaniuk has labelled the process for setting liquor licence fees for strip clubs as a complete sham after receiving documents under Freedom of Information.

"It has taken almost 9 months for these documents to be supplied despite a 45 day statutory deadline, and even then it took the intervention of the Ombudsman to force the Minister Robinson's hand" said an outraged Mr Iwaniuk

"It is now apparent why - only two documents are in existence and these provide no evidence whatsoever to justify the Minister's decision to raise licence fees for strip clubs by over 500%, well in excess of any other hospitality venue category, including gaming venues which represent a much higher risk" added Mr Iwaniuk.

According to Mr Iwaniuk, "the new licence fee regime was put out for public consultation in July last year in the form of a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS).There was no reference in the RIS whatsoever to sexually explicit entertainment venues but, ironically, gaming venues were identified as being of greater risk. This has since been reinforced by the explosive report on the Justice Department's website which provides a clear link between pokies and crime. According to the report only drug offences had a stronger link to crime than poker machines" (see: Attachment 2 and website link - http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/1a64778042c5ff2198ccf961032178a1/Gaming_expenditure_and_crime.pdf?MOD=AJPERES )

Mr Iwaniuk pointed out that the Government in its published response to the RIS, referred to only two submissions in its justification of the exorbitant fee increase for strip clubs and these were from the hotel industry, namely the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) and Town Hall Hotel (see Attachments 1 and 3 for the Department of Justice's table summary of these submissions).

Both submissions were highly critical of the new fee structure overall. In a 17 page submission, the AHA referred only briefly to strip clubs on 4 occasions (pages 8, 9, 10 & 11 - the submission is a public document and copies can be provided on request). The AHA's concern was solely that the licence fee would be in the same high risk category for what it calls family, food oriented and accommodation pubs as "free standing nightclubs and sexually explicit venues".

Neither the AHA or Town Hall submissions implied or provided evidence to the effect that strip clubs posed any greater risk than a normal nightclub, simply that these venues operated late at night which has been deemed a time of 'higher risk' simply because this is the peak time for socialisation.

In terms of the AHA's own calculations the licence fees under the model proposed in the RIS for Melbourne's largest Strip Cub, "the Men's Gallery, King Street.....will be approximately $16,000" ( source: page 9 - AHA submission).

"It is staggering therefore that in a sleight of hand and without any justification or corroborating research and evidence, Minister Robinson effectively overnight doubled the proposed licence fee for the Men's Gallery from what the Government originally proposed and even more for smaller strip clubs" said Mr Iwaniuk.

Mr Iwaniuk added "Clearly Minister Robinson was pandering to religious and special interest groups by politically interfering in proper Government process. It is on the public record that the Rialto Group wants strip clubs out of King Street to pursue its own re-development agenda and has made substantial donations to the Labour Party.

"It is also disturbing that Minister Robinson had given the AHA clear undertakings prior to the public consultation process as evidenced by the following quote on page 8 of its submission "It was our clear understanding based on advice from the Minister that the fee increases would be targeted to free standing nightclubs and sexually explicit entertainment venues rather than traditional pubs and hotels"

"When the Nightclub Owners Forum (NOF) asked the Ombudsman to investigate this blatant political interference, we were extremely concerned when the Ombudsman advised his office had no jurisdiction over Ministerial decisions. This example is further evidence of why an independent Anti - Corruption Commission is urgently needed in Victoria.

"At present, Ministers of the Brumby Government can act with impunity and ride roughshod over the interests of the broader community" stated Mr Iwaniuk.

Mr Iwaniuk further stressed "By contrast with gaming venues and religious institutions, Strip Clubs have minimal problems.

"All available research and statistics, both local and international suggest that strip clubs have the lowest ratio of incidents for comparable categories of licensed premises.

"A recent US scientific study (see Attachment 5) found the presence of strip clubs did not increase the number of crime incidents reported in localized areas surrounding the club as compared to the number of crime incidents reported in comparable localized areas that did not contain an adult venue.

"In fact, the analyses implied the opposite, namely that areas surrounding strip clubs have smaller numbers of reported crime incidents than do corresponding areas surrounding the three control sites studied.

"Locally, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research recently indicated that in 2008 people were nearly 6 times at risk of becoming a victim of crime in a church than in a strip club (source Sunday Telegraph April 11, 2010 article: "Aussies safer in a strip club than a church figures show")

"In regard to religious institutions, since 1990 media reports of court cases had shown nearly 1,000 church clergy had been dealt with for child sex abuse alone, and this only the cases that have come to public light. As there are only 20,000 church clergy in Australia, this presents at least one in 20 priests, a staggering figure. In contrast, Court reports over the same period indicate that no one from Australia's sex industry has been charged or indicted in a child sex abuse case (source: media release Australian Sex Party 2nd August 2010: Sex Party and Family First Agree to Royal Commission - see Attachment 4).

"Minister Robinson's attempts to close down Melbourne's strip clubs are a return to the dark ages and an attack on the personal freedom of adults and women's rights and employment choices. It is nothing more than a moral and religious campaign.

"This is why the NOF has thrown its weight behind the Australian Sex Party in the upcoming Federal and State elections. "The NOF is also considering the next stage of its challenge against the unjust licence fee hike, which may include an application to VCAT for a formal review of the Minister's decision.

"We will not rest until justice has been done" concluded Mr Iwaniuk.