NEWS
THE missed opportunity to scrap the lockout is one of the disappointments in a series of parliamentary recommendations aimed at combating bad behaviour on licensed premises, two leading lights in Australia’s first designated entertainment area – the Valley Entertainment Precinct – say.
They argue the existing 3am lockout, with 5am closure, has not worked and should have been scrapped in recommendations brought down by the Queensland Parliament’s Law, Justice and Safety Committee’s inquiry into alcohol-related violence.
If the recommendations are accepted by government – and industry insiders believe most if not all the findings will be implemented – a 2am lockout will apply in entertainment precincts that would have to close at 4am on Friday and Saturday nights.
From Sunday to Thursday, those venues will have to close at 2am anyway. For suburban venues outside entertainment precincts, existing extended trading hours would be cut back to no later than 1am Sunday to Thursday and no later than 3am on Fridays and Saturdays. On those nights, the lockout would apply just an hour before closing.
Les Pullos, licensee of Ric’s Bar, Bank and Vault in the Valley Mall, supported most of the recommendations but was critical of the decision to maintain a lockout.
“They have missed the opportunity to get rid of the lockout provisons which are not popular and are largely unproven and should have been given the chop,” he said.
Valley Liquor Accord chairman Danny Blair echoed that sentiment. He said that while the VLA supported the report in general, retaining the lockout went against the advice of foundation professor of criminology and criminal justice at Griffith University, and director of the university’s institute for social and behavioural research, Ross Homel.
“The lockout has caused more problems than it’s worth and the report even quotes Professor Homel who has labelled it an ‘absolute, 100 per cent failure’.”
Mr Blair said winding back trading hours during the week would have negligible impact on reducing violence and would disadvantaged shift and hospitality workers.
“Staying open until 4am, instead of 5am, is plausible but it should be for the entire week, not limited to only Friday and Saturday nights,” Mr Blair said.
“We live in a seven-day economy and not all people work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday and have weekends off. There’s no evidence to suggest reducing the hours midweek would reducing alcohol-related violence.”
Both men praised recommendations that police presence be increased. Les Pullos: “Provided that the promised increase in police numbers is delivered and that policing is performed in a proactive rather than a reactive manner, I think we can live with these reforms.”
Les Pullos said of the recommendations to windback bottle shop hours to a 9pm closure: “I don’t think they will prove particularly helpful.” Young people by 9pm had already bought the “ridiculously priced liquor that encourages a binge drinking culture”. “On-premise operators are restricted from even so much as displaying a price on a wine list in public,” he said.
