2 November 2011

Liquor licensing reform revamp dragging the chain

| johnboy
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The Greens’ Shane Rattenbury is ticked off with Simon Corbell’s tardy approached to revamped licensing fees to reflect the lower risk of smaller boozers.

Responding to questions today in a public inquiry, the ACT Attorney General revealed that new fees will be announced “as soon as possible”, but declined to set a date despite the fees being due in four weeks on the 1st December.

“Annual licence fees for pubs and clubs are due in four weeks and it is unfair for the Government to delay any further in announcing the new fee structure. Businesses need time to plan ahead and the Government needs to announce the fees by the end of the week,” Shane Rattenbury said.

“The Greens are keen to see a new structure that sets the fees based on the risk of alcohol fuelled violence posed by a venue.

“Supporting smaller venues with fairer fees is good policy. They pose less risk of violence and require less police call outs. They also diversify the night time economy meaning more employment and trade.

“The fees introduced last year were a blunt instrument because they treated a ninety person pub the same as a nine hundred person night club. The two pose very different risk profiles and the fees should have reflected that.

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A 900 person club also has security (who can kick out troublemakers), where a smaller place that is licensed to 30 people probably doesn’t have any security.

So perhaps there’s some reasoning behind the fee structure? Or they just have no idea.

“The fees introduced last year were a blunt instrument because they treated a ninety person pub the same as a nine hundred person night club. The two pose very different risk profiles and the fees should have reflected that”

That’s rich. If the Greens thought that, they shouldn’t have approved the fees’ introduction in the first place!

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