WA to review late-night precinct safety after Tim Picton death
WA Premier Roger Cook says the government will take a fresh look at safety in the state’s nightlife and entertainment precincts following the death of former WA Labor secretary Tim Picton.
Picton died in hospital on Monday, three weeks after allegedly being “coward-punched” during a night out in Northbridge on December 27.
Speaking on Tuesday, Cook said the government would work closely with WA Police to assess what more could be done to improve safety around pubs, clubs and late-night venues.
Asked whether tougher measures such as lockout laws could be considered, Cook said:
“Nothing’s off the table, but we’ll get advice from the police as to what else we can do to keep people safe.”
“When you have that cocktail of alcohol, nighttime activity, and particularly in the wee hours of the morning, they can lead to dangerous situations, so I think there’s more that we can do to look at the circumstances in which people disperse and in the evening, to try to make that a safer process.”
Violence in WA’s nightlife precincts has been a long-running concern, with successive governments introducing tougher penalties for one-punch attacks and other alcohol-fuelled incidents.
The most recent changes include the introduction of Protected Entertainment Precincts, which allow WA Police to issue exclusion orders of up to six months to anyone “displaying disruptive, violent, or threatening behaviour” in areas such as Perth, Northbridge, Fremantle, Scarborough, Hillarys and Mandurah.
Those laws followed the death of nightclub manager Giuseppe “Peppe” Raco, who was killed in an unprovoked one-punch attack in Northbridge in July 2020.
Cook said WA already had some of the strongest one-punch laws in the country, but there was scope to better manage the environments where incidents tend to occur.
“We have a range of levers and opportunities to provide further regulation of those environments, particularly around areas that the police might be aware of, where this sort of incidence is more common,” he said.
“We’re very open to advice from the police and others about how we can make Perth entertainment districts safer.”
WA does not have precinct-wide lockout laws, although individual venues can impose them and may have licence conditions tied to trading hours. By contrast, Sydney’s lockout laws, which restrict entry after 1.30am, have been widely blamed for dampening the city’s nightlife.
Picton, who previously advised Labor governments in WA and Victoria before working at Mineral Resources, spent three weeks in a coma before his family confirmed his death on Monday.
His alleged attacker, Brodie Jake Dewar, 20, is expected to face upgraded manslaughter charges when he next appears in court in February. Dewar appeared in court last week, where CCTV footage was shown of Picton standing and calmly speaking to a man police allege was Dewar, before being struck in the face at about 5.35am outside a Northbridge club.
Picton suffered a fractured skull and serious brain injuries and was placed in an induced coma following surgery.
Dewar’s bail was revoked last week after he was charged over a separate alleged assault on Christmas Day, with a magistrate describing both incidents as “coward punches”.
Jonathan Jackson, 21st January 2026
