Inner-city dwellers are familiar with pop-up bars, fashion boutiques and coffee shops. But a pop-up Senate committee hearing would surely be a first.
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Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm is currently running a Senate inquiry into the "nanny state" - officially described as "an inquiry into measures introduced to restrict personal choice 'for the individual's own good'". The committee, which held its first hearings in Canberra on Friday, is examining the effects of government regulation of alcohol, pornography, marijuana and bike helmets on individual liberty.
The inquiry has drawn submissions from raw milk enthusiasts, paintball operators, and convenience store operators who want to sell packaged alcohol.
Sydney hearings are due later this year, and Leyonhjelm doesn't want them to be held in the usual bland conference room. He is pushing for the inquiry to hold its hearings in a Kings Cross bar which has shut down following the introduction of lock-out laws and other anti-violence measures by the state government last year.
The laws require bars and clubs to lock out patrons who are outside the venue by 1.30am and call last drinks at 3am in the CBD entertainment precinct.
Senator Leyonhjelm has described the laws, introduced following several one-punch deaths, as a "classic moral panic" response that has dented the city's tourism industry.
Kings Cross icon Hugo's Lounge - which shut in August following a 60 per cent drop in turnover - is one of the shuttered venues under consideration for the hearing.
The mind boggles at the possibilities. Perhaps Ayn Rand Ale on tap served with a side of freedom fries.
"Doing this would highlight the impact of the lock-out laws and it would also save the government money," Senator Leyonhjelm said.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari, who sits on the committee, is on-board.
"I spent a fair bit of time in Hugo's back in the day - I never thought I would be there to hold Senate hearings," he said.
"This is set to become Australia's most comprehensive investigation into vice. Who said the Senate was boring?"
But there is one problem: bureaucrats are conducting a risk assessment of the idea and Senator Leyonhjelm fears occupational health and safety regulations could get in the way.
