A parliamentary enquiry into Sydney and NSW’s live music scene has brought up some not even slightly shocking results. The enquiry found, among a bunch of other things, that the unnecessary restrictions on NSW events and venues are causing a music crisis across the state.

The report released on Thursday by the committee into music and arts economy came with 60 recommendations and found what we really shouldn’t have needed a committee to tell us. Simply put, the crisis goes from grassroots music scene and is still relevant all the way to the national touring circuit.

Furthermore report stated that  “The committee does not believe that there is a link between live music, in and of itself, and violence,” continuing on to state that it believes the opposite.  The committee met with a bunch of artists and bands precious to Australia including Client Liaison and The Hoodoo Gurus to help form their opinion, yet seems to have been lead by someone seemingly conservative in Paul Green from the Christian Democratic party, hopefully curbing its bias.

Here are some of the main points and recommendations from the report:

• The committee does not believe that there is a link between live music, in and of itself, and violence
• The committee believes that “Not having a vibrant music industry will cost us greatly and bring embarrassment to our beautiful global city,”
• NSW needs an increase in funding for contemporary music of at least $35m over four years, to match that of Victoria on a per capita basis
• NSW should change liquor legislation to remove outdated restrictions on liquor licences and venues
• Premier should either change the Minister for Arts to the Minister for Arts, Music and Culture or better yet create a new role for a Minister for Music on top of the already existing roles
• Better planning measures for nightlife areas including flexible zoning areas to help sort out noise complaints and make nightlife

The report is available in full here and after the weekend past that saw multiple Sydney warehouse venues shut down, a boutique festival unfairly targeted and events having to call it quits due to further restrictions placed on them, the outcomes of this report couldn’t come sooner.