QLD Lockout Laws Costing Wages, Patronage, & No Decrease In Violence
It’s been two months since Queensland’s controversial revised lockout laws came into effect, and it seems they’re proving to be just as useless as most of us thought they’d be.
Speaking to The Guardian, the Valley Liquor Accord’s chairman Nick Braban says venues have
experienced a drop in revenue and patronage is down by a third since the 1st of July. “The first weekend revenue was down by about 12 per cent and it’s flatlined since then,” said Braban. He also says casual workers are losing at much as $90 a week due to a loss of working hours.
On the non-business side of the lockout laws, Chaplain Watch founder Lance Mergard says his volunteers are encountering and being forced to deal with “heavily wasted” punters earlier in the night than usual. Well when you close venues earlier and stop shots at midnight what did the State government expect would happen?
“It used to be around midnight when we would start getting really busy, but now it’s as early as 9:30pm,” says Mergard. He also says there’s been no discernible increase or decrease in alcohol-fuelled violence, looks like the lockout laws aren’t even a Band-Aid fix…
The Courier Mail is also reporting some bars are already finding it difficult to make ends meet. Yeah, only two months in and Brisbane’s nightlife is struggling!
Owner of West End bar the Lychee Lounge Peter Bierton said the new laws, which allow licensed premises to trade only until 2am and Safe Night Precincts like Fortitude Valley and the Casino until 3am, are a tough blow for local business. “We’re no longer looking at opening any other venues in Brisbane…we’re only just trying to hang on to the one we have,” says Bierton.
Bierton says the looming 1am lockout set to come into effect on February 1 2017 would mean his staff wouldn’t be able to socialise after work, potentially seeing a gradual loss of staff.
“Every time we discuss the issue at work we say how unfair it is. Staff who work until midnight and 2am, they can’t even go out. It’s going to drive people away from the industry. You can’t have a business without your employees,” says Bierton.
Owner of fellow West End venue Lock’n’Load Bistro Sue Bird said there’s also confusion among punters to when they’ll be locked out of licensed venues. “Come 12am people are saying ‘are we locked out?’ or ‘are we locked in?’. They don’t where they can go and where they can’t go and what they can and can’t drink,” says Bird.
In a crazy coincidence, a new study by the University of England has found you’re more likely to experience alcohol-fuelled violence when drinking at home compared to licensed venues! Yeah, it further looks like the lockout laws aren’t the best option to combat our violent-when-drunk culture…
According to News.com, the University of England discovered 36 per cent of alcohol-induced injuries happened at home while just 13 per cent of injuries happened on the street and 10 per cent in licensed venues. Professor Kim Usher from the University of England’s School of Health says the study shows drinking hard at home a.k.a pre-loading/pre-drinks is more dangerous than in licensed venues.
“An injury due to assault is 84 per cent more likely to happen in the home compared to other locations. Of all the alcohol-related injuries, the most frequent body region to sustain an injury was the head, neck or face.
“The study showed women with alcohol-related injuries were most likely to have sustained that injury in the home than at a licensed venue, with 59 per cent of those injuries reported to be the result of domestic violence by a partner,” said Professor Usher.
Even though the picture looks bleak for Queensland’s lockout laws, Australian Medical Association Queensland says we need to wait until accurate data is available to then properly judge the effectiveness of the laws.
Australian Medical Association Queensland president Chris Zappala says cultural change won’t “happen overnight”, as the revised lockout laws are “an important first step in combating the culture of binge drinking and associated violence”.
Reported by The Courier Mail, Dr Zappala said statistics surrounding similar laws in Newcastle and Sydney showed a sustained decrease in alcohol-related violence over time. Well yeah, but who goes to Newy for a killer night out…and aren’t Sydneysiders protesting at least once a month about how their nightlife is dying?
The Courier Mail reports Queensland Health statistics show there were less than 7000 alcohol-related presentations at the state’s hospitals to July 31 this year, or nearly 1000 a month. By comparison, a total of 12,083 patients (or an average of 1006 a month) were treated for alcohol related injuries in 2015.
Only time will tell if Queensland’s lockout laws, which from February next year will only become tougher, will actually curb alcohol-fuelled violence on our streets. Let’s just hope we don’t lose too many venues and iconic Brisbane watering holes in the process of achieving an improved cultural approach to drunken behaviour.
#KeepBrisbaneOpen…oh, and #KeepSydneyOpen while we’re at it!
Read how the QLD lockout laws will affect small local bands HERE, what music venue owners think of the laws HERE, and the local music industry’s reaction HERE
