16 October 2006

No nocturnal liquor licensing inspections?

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times is running claims by Steve Pratt that the Police tell him the ACT’s six liquor licensing inspectors don’t work nights, which is a bit of a problem as night time is when most of the liquor service goes on.

The Office of Fair Trading says they do patrol at night but won’t say when, the Hotels Association says their members never ever serve alcohol irresponsibly but more visible policing would reduce the number of not-drunks from belting each other in non-drunken rage.

Do we get a warm fuzzy glow knowing that Mezzalira is serving the verdhello responsibly at lunch time?

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Steve Pratt is about as useful as a cock flavoured lollipop.

This isn’t true. Liquor licensing inspectors often do patrols of civic nightclubs (yes, at night..) looking for underage drinkers. Not only have I seen this with my own slightly intoxicated eyes on many occasions, I have several friends who are involved in the business.

I doubt that the inspectors even bother checking whether intoxicated people are served alcohol. Steve Pratt seems to think that increasing the number of inspectors will curb drunken violence but I don’t see his point.
Club owners and club security aren’t going to encourage violent drunks to continue drinking… the price of a few drinks doesn’t cover repairing damage and the image issues that come with letting drunks assault your patrons.

The inspectors can only take action where bar staff knowingly serve alcohol to intoxicated people. For the reasons above, I don’t see that this would be common at all. Much more likely would be that their friends buy drinks for them, which is impossible to police from the bar staff’s perspective.

If police really are telling Steve that they don’t think there’s enough inspectors out at night, it seems to me that it’s a convenient excuse for the recent violence in Civic. Clearly, assault and property damage are criminal offences best dealt with by police, not beaurucrats with the incredible power to write out warnings and fines.

James-T-Kirk10:54 am 16 Oct 06

Sounds fine to me –

hic

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