NEWS
Significant licensed venue closures would follow any State Government decision to scale back opening hours, an industry leader warns.
Valley Liquor Accord chairman Danny Blair told The Independent: “If it comes back to a 2am or 3am closure, you will see half the clubs in the Valley close down over the next 12 months.
“The young kids don’t come out to 1am. It’s a lot different from when I was young.” It would be a cultural shift for them if they had to come out earlier, said Mr Blair, who added that research had shown that it took two years before such a shift in behaviour became the norm.
Venues would not be able to survive until that happened. Mr Blair said: “We are waiting with bated breath for the parliamentary inquiry recommendations to come down on March 18.”
Asked to comment on recent mainstream media reports suggesting not only that the parliamentary inquiry recommendations would be for scaled-back hours and the compulsory introduction of tempered glass and patron scanners but that the government would adopt those measures, Mr Blair said: “I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion.”
Industry insiders say that Premier Anna Bligh’s decision last year to let the existing 5am rules remain in force until mid-2010 had everything to do with the government not wishing to refund any of the millions of dollars paid by venues for staying open late, and nothing to do with her views on the matter.
Mr Blair said: “We would be opposed to any hours reduction.” He said there was no hard evidence to suggest that venues had more troubles with antisocial behaviour at 4am rather than at 3am. To the contrary, available evidence suggested that between 10pm and 1am was a more troublesome period and a 2am or 3am closure would do nothing to resolve that.
Mr Blair said an early closing would simply mean “we’ll flood the area with people” earlier in the night. “I have said repeatedly that the safest place in the Valley is to be inside a licensed venue with security.”
Mr Blair’s comments come as a separate lobby group Queensland Locked Out (QLO) has organised a protest rally outside Parliament House on March 11 against what it calls the Premier’s “temporary political fix of an earlier shut down of entertainment precincts”.
Rally organiser Zach Salar said it was time for the people “to stand up for their rights and stop being bullied by a government looking for the populace (sic) vote”.
“There are solutions to the issues confronting alcohol-related violence and it’s not taking away the rights of the majority and also reducing employment,” he said. “Harsher penalties, increasing police numbers in entertainment precincts and working with the licensees on the introduction of ID scanners is how the Bligh Government should be looking at rectifying these issues.
“Too often we have people like Anna Bligh who are short on statistics and other relevant data, who look for the emotional vote from mum and dad as a cheap way of staying in power.
“The QLO will show Bligh people’s power is alive and well when they rally outside the gates of Parliament against proposed plans to reduce licensees trading hours which cost the economy and many students and entertainment industry workers their livelihoods.”
The QLO is also organising a petition aimed at maximising the vote against the government at the next election if trading hours are reduced.
• For more information about the rally and petition, go to www.queenslandlockedout.com
