Insure Good Times
Legally incorporated advocacy association campaigning for structural reform of Australia’s public liability insurance market for live entertainment venues. Founded by Pride of Our Footscray’s leadership and positioned as the national voice of the insurance crisis.
Organisation
Legal name: Insure Good Times Inc. Launched: 11 February 2026 Website: insuregoodtimes.org.au
Board:
- Mat O’Keefe — President (CEO, Pride of Our Footscray)
- Shaemus Corcoran — Treasurer (Director, Exude Group)
- Anthony La — Secretary (Exude Group)
Six Reform Demands
- Federal statutory insurance scheme modelled on New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) — no-fault personal injury scheme eliminating tort claims
- Discretionary Mutual Fund for the entertainment sector, seeded with ~$5–10M government capital
- Expansion of ARPC mandate (Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation) to cover cultural infrastructure
- Legislative compulsion requiring insurers to offer PL to compliant small businesses
- Liquor licence buy-back scheme for venues rendered uninsurable
- Emergency bridge grants to prevent immediate insolvency of affected venues
Campaign Mechanism
Primary vehicle was a guided online submission builder driving public participation in the federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services inquiry (submissions closed 6 March 2026). The campaign used Pride of Our Footscray as the national anchor case study — the 2,506% premium increase with zero claims in eight years of trading.
Achievements (as of April 2026)
Media: National coverage in Beat Magazine, The Age, and A Current Affair. Pride positioned as the exemplar of insurance market failure.
Coalition support: Mainstreet Australia, Footscray Traders Association, Victorian Greens, and multiple independent venues endorsed the campaign.
Institutional alignment: The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) endorsed the DMF concept in its March 2026 parliamentary submission. The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) published a reform agenda calling for civil liability tort reform (October 2025).
No legislative or regulatory outcomes have been enacted as a direct result. The inquiry is in its evidence/hearings phase with the final report due 27 October 2026.
Strategic Context
The campaign serves dual purposes for Pride: (1) genuine advocacy for structural market reform that could reduce premiums from $157k to $20–40k/year, and (2) positioning Mat O’Keefe and Pride as the national face of the issue, which builds stakeholder credibility, media presence, and political capital that supports the broader turnaround (see Stakeholder Trust and Credibility).
The October 2026 parliamentary report is the next major inflection point. If the committee recommends a government-backed DMF or ARPC expansion with seed capital, structural relief could materialise by 2027–2028.
$1/Ticket Levy Model
The Australian Music Venue Foundation (AMVF) is exploring a $1/ticket levy model as a potential structural solution to the insurance crisis. This would create a pooled fund to subsidise public liability premiums for live music and entertainment venues. Status: under development, not yet operational (as of April 2026). Source: Footscray Night-Time Economy Research.
Related Pages
- Insurance Crisis Timeline and Status — insurance market detail and cost trajectory
- Insurance Inquiry — parliamentary inquiry tracking
- Mat O’Keefe — campaign president and Pride CEO
- Stakeholder Trust and Credibility — campaign’s role in building credibility
- Footscray Night-Time Economy — NTE structural context and insurance data