Such and Such co-owner Ross McQuinn spent almost a year navigating four government departments just to install two umbrellas outside his city restaurant – a saga now being held up as evidence Canberra needs a dedicated night-time economy coordinator.
This week’s inquiry heard repeated calls for such a role from venue owners, musicians and hospitality operators concerned about the state of Canberra’s after-dark economy.
In a joint letter from Independent MLA Thomas Emerson to ACT Night-Time Economy Minister Tara Cheyne, signatories including Fiction, Molly, Mooseheads, Bar Rochford and Luna warned of “growing distress among many local night-time venue managers about the viability of their operations” and a “serious risk of more closures without urgent government intervention”.
Read the article here: https://region.com.au/12-months-4-government-departments-what-it-took-for-a-canberra-restaurant-to-get-2-umbrellas/966082/