The newly-elected Baird Government has been accused of dropping proposed further trade restrictions and licensing requirements after lobbying by industry.
The draft guidelines would have seen operators required to exclude anyone seen drinking on approach to a venue, and service limits on “high-risk” days of the year such as Australia Day and Anzac Day.
A decision to not implement these new regulations has been branded a “back-down” courtesy of pressure from the alcohol industry.
A meeting in February that included Clubs NSW, the Australian Hotels Association, and Restaurant & Catering Australia, is supposed to have swayed the incumbent Baird into submission.
The AHA did in fact lodge a formal submission with OLGR regarding what it called “draconian” guidelines, and Clubs NSW has negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the NSW Liberal Government to classify “the vast majority of clubs [as] safe” and focus enforcement elsewhere.
Ironically, the report in yesterday’s media cited “freedom of information” for supplying record that AHA director “Paul Green” – aka John Green – opposed the plan to refuse entry to someone seen consuming liquor, points out that “drinking in public wasn’t illegal”.
The LSA (Liquor Stores Association) was also quoted pointing out that observation of drinking does not assure intoxication.