Vic Govt Commits To Fund Sexual Assault Prevention Program For Live Venues

Following the tireless work of Helen Marcou's SLAM (Save Live Australia's Music) and LISTEN, the Victorian government have committed to implement a program and policy to reduce sexual assault and sexual harassment in Victorian live music venues.

LISTEN's Katie Pearson and Marcou, among others, launched a taskforce in 2015 to discuss avenues such as "policy, training, education [and] legislation", as Marcou told The Music in August last year. The issue was also discussed heavily in a solutions-oriented panel at Face The Music last November. 

Finally, as ABC reports, the Victorian Government will fund a pilot program — costing approximately $200,000 — for nine venues to undertake, comprising of education modules for venue staff and security on how to respond to incidents, ensure victims are treated properly and deal with the perpetrators appropriately.

read more: here are ten practical things you can do to make your venue a safer place

The Victorian Minister For Equality And Creative Industries, Martin Foley, said, "We’ll be taking all those recommendations and implementing them all because if we’re serious about making Victoria the live music capital of Australia we need to make sure that it’s accessible for everyone and that includes being safe."

The nine venues will be selected after consulting with the music industry and the trial will reportedly run from between six to 12 months, after which it could be expanded to the whole state.

Foley said, "We will drive this change from these nine venues to the wider Victorian live music sector."

Members of bands like High Tension (frontwoman Karina Utomo was on the aforementioned Face The Music panel, discussing the band's experience with assault at their shows), Luca Brasi and Camp Cope have all gotten behind policy such as this, with Camp Cope even launching the #ItTakesOne campaign at Laneway Festival this year, where a hotline was set up for patrons who felt uncomfortable or unsafe.