The Victorian Government has responded to a push to combat sexual assault in venues, in particular in the live music sector, by committing to a sexual assault prevention program.
As Hack report, the Government has responded to a push from activist groups like LISTEN and SLAM to start a taskforce to figure out how to best deal with sexual assault.
The Government will now implement a sexual assault prevention program in nine venues across the state training staff and security on how to respond to incidents and make sure the victims are treated appropriately after reporting an incident.
“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 Victorian Minister for Equality and Creative Industries, Martin Foley, told triple j.
Hack reports that the program could cost up to $200,000, however, Foley did not confirm how much money they would be putting into it. He did say that venues could have to pay for some of it.
“We want to make sure that venues and promoters do their fair share in all this as well – that they meet their responsibilities and they contribute as well,” he said.
The program will be trialled on nine venues for six to 12 months before extending it wider.
“We will drive this change from these nine venues to the wider Victorian live music sector,” he said.
The end goal is to make the program “a condition of licence” for venue owners.
This comes after a number of Australian artists have called out sexual assault at gigs including Urthboy, Courtney Barnett and Luca Brasi.
Last month, Laneway Festival implemented a 1800-LANEWAY number for punters to report disrespectful behaviour.
Read both SLAM and LISTEN’s statement on Facebook following the Government’s commitment below.