Breaking booze culture with sweeping reforms
RICHARD NOONE
The Daily Telegraph
August 25, 2012
DRINK sales would be restricted from 10pm, pubs and clubs would shut their doors at 1am and kick out patrons by 3am under proposed sweeping statewide reforms to curb alcohol-fuelled violence.
Australia's peak anti-alcohol lobby said new restrictions announced last week for Kings Cross didn't go far enough and has called for unprecedented measures for all NSW licensed venues.
Premier Barry O'Farrell called for pub and club marshals, a ban on glassware and drinking shots and a four-drink limit per customer from midnight on weekends in Sydney's red-light district following the death of Thomas Kelly.
But the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) wants to ban shots and ready-mixed drinks over 5 per cent alcohol from 10pm, ban energy drink mixers after midnight and set a four-drink limit at all times. It also wants closing times for all late-night venues in NSW wound back to 3am and to begin a 12-month trial of 1am lock-outs.
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Four-drink limit for Cross partygoers
SHOTS will be banned from midnight and there will be a limit of four drinks per customer in Kings Cross under tough new laws.
That recommendation follows a trial in Newcastle that led to a 37 per cent reduction in alcohol-related violence.
The proposed restrictions are in a plan to be handed to the state government today.
It follows a spate of glassings and bashings.
FARE chief executive Michael Thorn said the government was at a crossroads. "Before it lies an opportunity, born from tragedy, to introduce a comprehensive plan to reduce alcohol-related harms across the state," he said.
"The people know only too well the devastating effects of alcohol use and misuse and they also understand those harms extend beyond the drinker and impact people in the broader community."
FARE said the "heart of the problem (was) excessive availability of alcohol", with one liquor licence in NSW for every 470 people.
"Increased availability of alcohol, both through the increased numbers of outlets and longer trading hours, contributes to alcohol-related violence and harms," FARE's 10-point plan states.
The Howard government set up FARE in 2001 to advise on policy and distribute funding for programs and research on alcohol and drug abuse.
Clubs NSW CEO Anthony Ball was critical of a "one-size-fits-all approach" -- saying there were more assaults in pubs and nightclubs in inner Sydney last year than in every registered club across the state.
"Punishing the club that hasn't had a glassing in its 50-year history simply because a nightclub in Kings Cross refuses to clean up its act makes absolutely no sense at all," he said.
Australian Hotels Association NSW CEO Paul Nicolaou said FARE's own research found 83 per cent of people consumed alcohol away from licensed premises and assaults at venues were at their lowest in a decade.
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