Clubs exempted from lockout laws
A landmark court decision has exempted Sydney strip clubs and live music venues from New South Wales lockout laws.
The Supreme Court found that sections of the laws introduced by then-premier Barry O’Farrell in 2014 were invalid in giving the Justice Department secretary the power to declare a venue subject to the law.
Justice Natalie Adams found that certain clauses were “not a proper exercise of the regulation-making power conferred upon the Governor”.
The ruling means that strip clubs including Men’s Gallery and Pure Platinum and live music venues such as the Oxford Art Factory would no longer be subject to the state’s lockout laws.
The court ruling is in response to a legal challenge brought by the Smoking Panda Bar at the Coronation Hotel.
The Smoking Panda’s beef was that it had originally been exempted from the laws on the grounds that it was a “tourism accommodation establishment”, only to find its exemption cancelled after a Liquor and Gaming NSW investigation found non-hotel guests had been frequenting the bar.
In her ruling, Justice Adams pointed out that Liquor and Gaming NSW had failed to give a proper definition for the term “tourism accommodation establishment.”
“Nothing in the correspondence indicates that there was any condition stipulated by either police or the OLGR that the bar could only permissibly service residents of the hotel’s accommodation facilities,” Justice Adam said.
The government is understood to be appealing the decision which has been referred to the Callinan Review of the lockout laws which is expected to be released this week.
The news coincides with an exclusive Fairfax poll finding that 60 per cent of NSW voters support extending the 1.30am "lockout" and 3am last drinks rule that applies across Kings Cross and parts of the CBD to the rest of the state.
Only one in four opposed extending the lockouts across the state.
by Leon Gettler, August 30th 2016
