Clover Takes On The Liquor Industry

Local News, By Christian Taylor, 26th September, 2007

Apparently police are keeping tabs on a number of bars on the Oxford Street strip, saying that these venues take up a disproportionate number of police resources due to their poor management and irresponsible service of alcohol.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the venues are the notorious T2 at Taylor Square, Stonewall, ARQ as well as the Oxford Hotel. Officers have been questioning people who have committed alcohol related offences, asking them where they’d been earlier that night, and these were the venues that kept popping up.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore is currently fighting the Australian Hotels Association head on in an attempt to address the growing problems on the strip. She’s pushing for changes to legislation that would see NSW’s liquor laws start to look more like those in Victoria. Under the proposed changes, instead of shelling out thousands and going through miles of red tape, venues of 120 people or less could get a liquor license for $500, which would mean more smaller, intimate bars, and a much more diverse nightlife for all of us.

She’s also pushing for new mechanisms that would stop late trading hours for bars with poor reputations.

While it’s been likened to David versus Goliath, she does have an unlikely, powerful ally on her side – Frank Lowy from Westfield Shopping Centres. Westfield wants the liquor laws rewritten too, so that they can create jobs and have small bars in their shopping malls.

Westfield’s secret weapon is Professor John Nieuwenhuysen – he was the academic behind the legislation change in Victoria back in the eighties. Back then they said it would never happen, and he managed to get the changes through. Perhaps he can do it again?

Professor Nieuwenhuysen told Sydney Morning Herald that since the changes in Melbourne legislation 20 years ago, the number of liquor licences had increased from 3200 to 17,000, without there being much change in actual alcohol intake per capita.

“Instead of the NSW state or local government and licensing authorities taking a restrictive attitude to the growth of premises, there should be a positive approach to emulate the Victorian experience,” he told the Herald.

Obviously the Australian Hotels Association are hating the plan.

“The AHA down in Victoria gave me a very rough time [back in the eighties]. They were so arrogant,” said Professor Nieuwenhuysen. “They always thought they had the industry and the government in their pocket.”

Could this be the injection of life that Sydney so desperately needs? Watch this space.

Make your voice heard. Go to www.raisethebar.org.au.

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