Parliamentary Inquiry into “Small Business Insurance”
Prepared 9 February 2026

Media Contact

Organisation: Insure Good Times Inc.
Registered Victoria Association Number A0128156J
Email: hello@insuregoodtimes.org.au
Mobile: 0417 219 899
Website: insuregoodtimes.org.au

At a glance

• Insure Good Times Inc (IGT) is a not-for-profit, non-partisan association formed to advance public awareness and policy reform relating to insurance practices negatively impacting Australian small businesses and workers.
  
  

• The association’s objectives include supporting and promoting participation in democratic processes (like the parliamentary inquiry currenting being held) by providing template tools, explainers, guides, and outreach support—specifically to reduce friction for time-poor individuals and SMEs.
  
  

• The current “INSURE GOOD TIMES” campaign is specifically focussed on the Parliamentary Inquiry into “Small Business Insurance”, as insurers are currently crushing small-medium live entertainment venues (like live music venues or queer bars with drag queens) by making public liability insurance either completely unavailable or ruinously unaffordable, but venues need that insurance to help keep people safe and to comply with their lease. Public liability insurance is therefore like the water or power bill, you can’t avoid it, and what’s happening has closed a lot of venues and festivals.
  
  

• A central case study used in campaign materials is Pride of our Footscray, which reports public liability premium escalation from $6,270 (2020) to $142,890 quoted (2024) (or $157,179 financed), alongside widespread insurer refusals (18 of 19 declined to offer insurance at any cost), as it has a dancefloor and is open past midnight. Yet it’s a well regarded small venue with probably the sweetest mixed crowd in Melbourne, and it’s basically been deemed uninsurable.

The core problem of Public Liability Insurance (in plain language)

Insure Good Times’ position is that public liability insurance (PLI) is mandatory (for leases, licenses, contracts, festivals and events), but insurers can raise prices dramatically or refuse to offer cover, leaving lawful businesses unable to operate.  In some cases the insurers have raised the prices 10-fold or 20-fold since COVID. Sugar Nightclub in Adelaide reported their public liability insurance went from $32,000 to $220,00 per year, forcing them to close.

Live entertainment venues are not just dealing with astronomical prices (insurance costing more than the yearly rent), but a failed insurance market as there’s only one or two insurers in Australia that will work with venues where people might be dancing to a DJ or a band late at night, and almost all cover ends up being ultimately backed by Lloyds of London, so venues just have to pay up or close, as there’s no competition.

The insurance premiums bear no correlation to individual risk quality (including claim-free history and high compliance), as even venues with long histories of zero claims are having their insurance cut off or raised to exorbitant prices.

The insurers did not warn venues or the government this was coming, they just abandoned the market, jeopardising all the small-mediums live entertainment venues (capacity under 500) who each week pay performers and musicians to be on stage.

Submission Builder — the powerful engine of the Insure Good Times campaign

insuregoodtimes.org.au/submissions

What it is

The Insure Good Times Submission Builder is a streamlined tool that helps time-poor Australians (and Australia small businesses) lodge a credible inquiry submission without needing policy or legal confidence—using templates, prompts, explainers, and a guided pathway to reduce intimidation and friction. 

How it works

Step 1 — Choose your role (persona)

Users start by selecting who they are, so the experience matches their situation:

• Punter / Community Member

• Artist or Artist Representative

• Venue Owner

• Small Business Owner

• Worker / Contractor

• Landlord / Property Owner
  
  

Step 2 — Choose your speed

Fast (≈ 60 seconds)

• Lodge a campaign submission in under a minute

• Answer 3 multiple-choice questions to personalise key details

• Click Email → opens the drafted submission in the user’s email app → hit send
  
  

Guided (≈ 3–5 minutes)

• A full submission template users can craft end-to-end
  Built-in prompts + optional “tones” depending on what matters most
  Outputs: Download as PDF, Open in email, or Copy text

• Includes the IGT’s recommendations to the inquiry as optional inserts users can add, edit, or remove
  
  

Upload (hands-on / portal submission)

• Draft using the builder, then submit via the parliamentary portal
  Best for people who prefer direct upload and formal lodging workflows
  
  

Step 3 — Send it

Users choose the simplest “last mile” option: email, PDF, copy/paste, or direct portal upload—depending on their selected mode.

Quotes (grab-and-go)

Headline-friendly

• “Venues need public liability insurance… it’s a utility… but insurers have decided to raise prices 10-fold to 20-fold or just not offer insurance at all.” — Mat O’Keefe (CEO, Pride of our Footscray).
  
  

• “Insurance companies have raised public liability premiums 500%, 1,000%, 2,000% since 2020… many venues are closing and many festivals are stopping.” — Spokesperson, Insure Good Times Inc.
  
  

• “A mass removal of dancefloors across Australia should be subject to high-level democratic debate… not the result of… insurance giants withdrawing from the market without warning.” — from Pride’s submission.
  
  

Availability / refusal

• “After COVID, 18 out of 19 insurers approached declined… the insurance industry has left the building!” — Mat O’Keefe.
  
  

Why it matters

• “You don’t get to be INSERT BAND NAME on day 1. Bands need small and medium sized venues to start out… Drag artists need queer nightclubs… But the insurance companies are… charging ruinous premiums or refusing to insure them completely.” — Spokesperson, Insure Good Times Inc.
  
  

Deadline

• “This issue is closing venues at a rapid rate and needs to be seriously addressed by the parliamentary inquiry into Small Business Insurance, which is open for submissions until 6 March 2026.” — Spokesperson, Insure Good Times Inc.
  
  

Key facts

• Insurers do not want to insure dancefloors after midnight where alcohol may be involved.

• Nightclubs, live music venues and festivals are all affected by ruinous insurance premiums (sometimes 20%of the whole budget) and many are closing.

• Venues have often been asked to pay over 1000% more for public liability insurance compared to 2020. In some cases the bill has gone up more than 2000%.

• At current rates, the insurance bill can be significantly more expensive than the yearly rent of the entire venue.

• In many cases, insurers won’t even offer insurance if late night dancefloors are involved.

• Venues need public liability to trade, so insurers are basically outlawing dancing after midnight.

• Insurers have even withdrawn building insurance because a live entertainment venue was a tenant

• Many venues are already closed, including more than 1300 live music venues, many blaming insurance.

• Many of the venues impacted by astronomical insurance have never had an insurance claim.

• An Insurance Council Australia spokesperson (Alexandra Horden) has admitted that small-medium venues (under 500 people) may struggle to afford insurance now. Another ICA representative Mathew Jones admitted live music venues were an “unfortunate casualty” of what insurers are doing.

• Some venues have been forced into not having insurance, which is extremely risky for patrons, the venue and owners.

• The federal government has called a parliamentary inquiry into Small Business Insurance to investigate, submissions close 6 March 2026. Publicity around the inquiry has been conspicuously missing in action.

• A website at insuregoodtimes.org.au has been built to help get submissions to the government inquiry into Small Business Insurance, so the parliament can get the full facts about what’s happening to venues..

• Small to medium grassroots venues failing affects artist development and local cultural ecosystems, as performers of all genres need somewhere to start.

• Public Liability Insurance already caused chaos back in the early 2000s, when community groups, volunteer organisations and small businesses could not obtain cover. We have been through this before, it needs to be fixed.

• Live entertainment venues are calling for an urgent and innovative response, including that the inquiry consider a special government-backed insurance scheme for live entertainment venues.

• Insurers are trying to insist on ridiculous rules like “all patrons must be seated” or “no dancing if drinking, even on carpet’.

• Insurers have been charging venues for insurance but limiting or excluding any coverage over the dancefloor. And then wanting venues to pay $50,000 in excess if something happens anyway!

Ready-to-publish story on Insure Good Times draft (short: ~600–800 words)

Insure Good Times Inc is a newly formed, not-for-profit, non-partisan association created to advance public awareness and policy reform around insurance industry practices affecting Australian small businesses and workers. Its constitution is explicit about its mission: engage in public policy processes, prepare and lodge submissions and evidence, and help others participate—especially time-poor individuals and enterprises who find democratic processes hard to navigate.

The association’s campaign focuses on a blunt premise: for many businesses, public liability insurance isn’t optional. It is embedded in leases and contracts, and commonly required to trade. But in parts of Australia’s night-time economy, Insure Good Times argues insurers can now effectively “leave the party” without warning—either refusing to offer cover or pricing it beyond viability.

The campaign points to documentation submitted to the parliamentary inquiry into small business insurance. A central case study is Pride of our Footscray, a community-owned live entertainment venue in Melbourne. In the attached research report, Pride’s public liability premium is described as escalating from $6,270 in 2020 to a 2024 quote of $142,890 (or $157,179 once financed). The same report states that 18 out of 19 insurers approached in 2024 declined to quote at all. For Insure Good Times, that combination—extreme price plus widespread refusals—signals an availability and affordability shock consistent with market failure.

The association says the consequences are not theoretical. When cover becomes unobtainable, operators face a triage: close, operate without meaningful insurance, or shift costs onto patrons in a cost-of-living crisis. The submission warns that an increase in uninsured trading and displacement into informal events can raise public risk—the opposite of what insurance is meant to manage.

Insure Good Times’ immediate push is civic participation: the association exists to help people lodge evidence and submissions. The group’s messaging emphasises that reforms should be debated democratically, not imposed indirectly through the quiet removal of insurability from lawful cultural activity.

Ready-to-publish story on case study Pride of our Footscray draft (short: ~600–800 words)

Pride of our Footscray is a small live entertainment venue in Melbourne’s west. In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into Small business insurance’, the venue makes an unusually blunt claim: Meet PRIDE; we’re here, we’re queer, we’re uninsurable.

The submission documents a premium trajectory that the venue says has moved well beyond ordinary ‘cost pressures’. Pride states its public liability insurance (PLI) cost $6,270 in 2020 and then $43,010 in 2022, an increase of 685.97%. It says that by 2024, a broker approached 19 insurers; 18 declined; and the only quote obtained was $142,890 (or $157,179 once financed).

What makes the case especially newsworthy is the way risk is being defined. The submission reproduces policy wording that references “drinks being taken on the dance floor” and requires “a policy to prevent drinks being taken on the dance floor” plus evidence it is enforced. In practice, the venue argues, this shows insurers are unwilling to provide cover for the ordinary operating reality of nightlife: patrons dancing in proximity to alcohol. Another policy excluded mishaps on the dancefloor completely. Another insurer offered to provide insurance if it did not include dancing. Another insurer cancelled insurance related to Pride and said they would only give it back if Pride removed its dancefloor and had everyone seated. It’s Footloose come to Melbourne!

A broker email in Pride’s submission puts the market stance more plainly: “There is very little appetite for insuring nightclubs.”

The policy implications extend beyond one venue. Australia has experienced liability insurance availability and affordability shocks before. In the early 2000s, parliamentary inquiries documented sudden premium increases and reduced availability across public liability and related classes, leading to reform efforts. That history provides a useful lens for today’s debate: when a private market withdraws from essential social infrastructure, governments face pressure to consider structural solutions that restore availability, pricing fairness, and incentives that reward compliance and risk control.

Pride says it has always aimed to operate responsibly and compliantly. Its submission argues that if the practical insurance message becomes ‘dancing + alcohol = no’, then live music and nightlife are being regulated out of existence through pricing and exclusions rather than transparent public policy.

Email meet@prideofourfootscray.bar for a variety of images that can be used with the story.