Policy and Strategy : Live and Local Strategic Initiative

The Live and Local Strategic Initiative has been the catalyst for wide-ranging policy and strategy engagement with participating Councils, building connectivity and participation with Create NSW, the NSW Parliament and Local Government Initiatives, as well as supporting local music industry development planning and additional events, best practice better regulation consideration, and working relationships across functions within Council.

1. Supporting briefings on live music action plans, town planning models, best practice.

Throughout the operation of the Live and Local Program, the Live Music Office has provided participating Councils with references on best practice initiatives, as well as to any developments of note including updates on adjacent work happening of relevance.

One of them is when the Live Music Office came up to Tweed Shire to do a site visit we had an opportunity to meet with our strategic planning unit. That was a meeting where John Wardle and Lucy Joseph could provide some resources to our planners to promote arts and culture and provide a national picture and also on a State basis and within individual shires. That was a very informative, very short opportunity to get an overview of what is happening in the country. That started a conversation internally within council around how we can use planning to promote arts and culture in a way that we had not before. It is a new piece of work and our planners are not in a position to just drop everything and engage in a new aspect, but it started the conversation – Tweed Shire Council

Both Armidale Regional Council and the City of Newcastle are investigating introducing the suite of measures developed by Wollongong City Council through their Live Music Taskforce to better support the music industry and evening economy development.

The City of Newcastle has also established a Live Music Taskforce with assistance from the Live Music Office as reflected in the following evidence provided to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry:

“The Newcastle Live Music Taskforce was set up under the guidance of the New South Wales Office of Live Music” … “I am very pleased that that is a position the city is in and, in large part, is credit to the work that we have been able to undertake with the Live Music Office. – City of Newcastle

In October 2018 the LMO joined Create NSW on the roadshow with Hawkesbury Council to talk about Live Music Action Plans, planning controls and best practice.

2. Engaging with the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the music and arts economy.

The following participating Councils and associated organisations have provided written submissions to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the music and arts economy;

Liverpool City Council
Newcastle City Council
Tweed Shire Council
City of Parramatta
Blue Mountains Economic Enterprise
Wagga Wagga City Council

With these Councils appearing directly before the committee to provide further evidence;

Liverpool City Council
Newcastle City Council
Tweed Shire Council
City of Parramatta

3. Participation in the consultation and development of the Create NSW Contemporary Music Strategy and associate musicians survey.

Artists, curators, venues and Councils have been able to participate in the survey being undertaken by Create NSW investigating musicians working conditions and issues, with further participants attending consultation sessions for the development of a strategic plan for contemporary music in;

Sydney CBD
Byron Bay
Western Sydney
Orange
With Create NSW attending the Newcastle Live Music Strategy – Industry Workshop

4. Connecting roles within Councils – cultural / events / development assessment / planning

The Live and Local program continues to build connectivity across functions within participating Councils, as working relationships are built through the program and subsequent opportunities arise and are able to be capitalised on, as noted in the following evidence from Tweed Shire Council:

There is one other thing I will mention in terms of outcomes as a result of the festival that I think is worthwhile which is the Kingscliff initiative I have mentioned in Rowan Robinson Park. That is a situation where there is a brand-new park that has been renovated on the foreshore that has a stage with power and there are some funds to activate that space. My ability to propose to the manager of the park that we put music on there was directly related to the fact that weeks earlier I had written a grant acquittal to the Live Music Office and Create NSW to say, “This is what it costs to hire musicians. This is a sound production studio. This is a database of musicians that would be great for families in a park.” I had the information at my fingertips, which made the initiative possible in a way that if it happened a year ago I would not have known where to turn to. – Tweed Shire Council

5. Supporting Local Government Night Time Economy dialogue and consideration

Participating Councils are also now connecting with the Local Government NSW Night Time Economy Councils Committee (NTECC) – see below. The Live Music Office would advocate that the Live and Local Strategic Initiative be a case study for further NTECC events.

One of the things I have been involved in since the Live and Local grant was started was to get on the Local Government NSW mailing list for the night-time economy. They organise a series of what they are calling master classes—essentially one-day workshops that are free for local government to attend in Sydney. I believe in November they are intending to have one around planning. That is something I have communicated to our planning unit and they have said, “When the date’s confirmed, we’d be interested to attend.” So that is an example of where that conversation around planning only happened because of John and Lucy’s visit. I did not have a reason to meet with our planners prior to that but now we have a bit of a working relationship. I am not the expert in that space but I can perhaps be a bit of a liaison to say, “This is happening.” – Tweed Shire Council