Queensland parliamentary committee recommends scrapping lockout laws

A report released last Friday afternoon by a Queensland Parliamentary committee has recommended that the State Government go ahead and scrap its controversial lockout laws.

On February 14, the Queensland Government introduced a bill to repeal 1am lockouts and the 3am safe night precincts model.

The amendment bill will also make mandatory ID scanners after 10pm, and 5am exemptions halved, to six a year.

The six-member bipartisan Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee released its report late last Friday agreeing that the bill should be passed by Queensland parliament.

The report was critical of the Government’s handling of the lockouts, and in a way agreed with condemnation by the live music industry – that the Government was rushing into it, under pressure from medical and police associations, and looking at the flawed Sydney lockouts as a model instead of looking at options.

The live music sector had urged the Government to be open to more consultation, and be mindful of the impact of lockouts on the nightlife, live music and tourism industries.

The committee said in last Friday’s report: “The Premier and her Labor Government could have saved everyone a lot of time, money, concern and stress if they had listened and implemented evidence-based policy this time last year.

“There was ample evidence then that the introduction of a 1am lockout was no way of reducing alcohol and drug-related violence and there have been very mixed results in other jurisdictions as to its effectiveness.”

Twenty-five associations made submissions to the committee.

Among them were Fortitude Valley Safe Night Precinct, whose President, Trent Meade, who said that since trading hours were slashed from 5am to 3am, the precinct has “seen a double-digit reduction in our bar turnover and we have had to look at other means to make up that revenue.

“Certainly there have been job losses in that period of time because we cannot sell our primary product after 3am.” He added that in the first few months since phase one was introduced, job losses were up to 20%.

Read the full transcript of the public hearing here.

The Queensland Government backed off introducing the second phase of the lockout laws after evidence proved that the first was not being effective in reducing alcohol-fuelled violence in entertainment precincts.

The laws, which kicked in on July 1, 2016, stated that last drinks were to be at 2am across Queensland, or at 3am in Safe Night Precincts such as those in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. Shots were banned after midnight – much to the dismay of venues which said that these high-priced drinks in the early hours generated a large income for them.

The review was also critical of the way venue operators in a number of entertainment precincts were “gaming the system.” The lockout laws provided exceptions where venues could stay open until 5 am for “special occasions”.

According to the review, operators would coordinate these exceptions so in each precinct, at least one venue would be open until 5 am during the lucrative Saturday night late trade.

Media reports, including those in TMN, last year reported that nightclubs rushed their “special nights” into a six month period, rather than a full year, knowing that the Government would pull back on the laws in 2017 as it was an election year.