By Annette Shailer
Melbourne’s official protest group against the proposed lockouts will hold an urgent meeting tonight at Chasers Nightclub finalising details for its May 30 protest.
The protest group MelbourneLockedOut is fighting the imposed 2:00am lockouts on Melbourne’s bars and clubs, to be implemented on June 3.
MelbourneLockedOut spokesperson, Andrew Ranger, is calling for supporters to meet at Chasers Nightclub tonight at 7:00pm tonight, arming them with promotional material and knowledge.
“The lockouts will affect so many people, the industry on a whole as well as the public’s civic rights,” he said. “That’s why we want everyone to come to the meeting tonight and to next week’s protest. This is a people’s movement.”
The meeting will outline facts, strategies, the latest news and protest arrangements for the official protest against the proposed lockouts, organised in accordance to the law.
The group’s suggested changes and solutions are available on a Facebook page, with just under 10,000 online members showing support.
One solution gaining momentum is that existing RSA laws should be more strongly adhered to by hospitality staff and more thoroughly monitored by Victorian police.
A key concern commonly stressed on the group’s Facebook wall and also by Ranger is that hospitality staff finishing after 2:00am will be unable to enter venues if the changes go ahead.
“When the Bendigo lockouts came into play, the hospitality workers were excluded from the lockout so that they could go for a drink after work. That clause was not put in the Melbourne proposal,” he said.
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