‘WITCH’ TAKES BROOM TO NANNA STATE TAUNTS
Josephine Tovey URBAN AFFAIRS
November 8, 2010
THE City of Sydney council is preparing to hit back against a secretive campaign by venue owners in Sydney against plans to clamp down on violent pubs and clubs, which depicts the lord mayor, Clover Moore, as a witch who is trying to ”close Sydney”.
The council has received thousands of letters of complaint via a website, www.nannastate.com.au, protesting against proposed changes to the city’s late night trading rules. It comes after the Today FM radio show host Kyle Sandilands, who also owns a stake in several Sydney bars, said last month that he wanted to ”get rid of” Cr Moore.
”I’ll get rid of that woman, you watch. Eighty-year-old woman trying to run the town. Go to the retirement village, you old clown,” Sandilands said on his program.
The website depicts Cr Moore as a fairy tale-style witch, complete with green skin and a pointed hat, and shows Sydney icons such as Centrepoint Tower being swallowed by vines.
It tells visitors: ”If you don’t take a stand now, one by one, the City of Sydney is going to turn off the lights on Sydney’s late night scene and its night-time economy.”
The Herald understands it is being run by a group of venue promoters and owners although no one will put their name to it.
The web address is being distributed via social networking sites such as Facebook and through the street and music press, and has already generated more than 2000 emails to the council.
The amendment to the Late Night Trading Premises Development Control Plan 2007 being considered by the council includes the power to make some venues subject to ”reviewable conditions”, meaning council could restrict their capacity and trading hours if a review found the venue was being poorly managed.
In response to the campaign and widespread opposition to the changes among licensees and publicans, the council is sending letters to industry members and distributing posters.
”The [development control plan] is about rewarding well-managed establishments whilst in the worst instances, withdrawing extended trading privileges from those who do not deserve to have them,” the letter reads. ”A small minority of poorly run premises contribute to alcohol-related violence and give the industry a bad name.”
The anti-council campaign is similar to another secretive campaign waged by the industry early last year called ”2am Sydney Closed” against the development control plan, which was being drafted at the time.
The ”nanna state” website is registered to an individual named George Mihailovski, who did not respond to requests for comment. The Australian Hotels Association said it was not involved in the campaign.
Tiffany Watson’s Thought
We live in a time these days where you can’t make your own decision, we seem to have so much control being put onto us for a democratic society. I have heard the stories of my Grandfathers (who was a well respected man) day and my fathers day. Most of the things they got up I am sure they would have been thrown in jail these days for. You know what though, they came out of it and no one was hurt. People need to take responsiblity for themselves, it they don’t want to be in a pub thats a little rough then leave go somewhere else. We all know where the local rough pubs are. Do I go to them, NO. You know why, because I don’t want to be apart of that crowd.
If you let Sydney start changing the rules and making it even harder for people to stay open they won’t stop. It will then spread to the rest of Australia. We are a country that has pubs everywhere, every true Aussie loves to have a schooner at the pub at least every now and again. I don’t want to be told that I can’t go and have a beer at 3am if I so choose to. Most sensible people actually have lifts (home) organised in some way shape or form.
I would love to hear other people’s thought and comments.
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