Reports of a police warning to a publican who offered free beers to the firefighters who helped save his pub was evidence of a “bureaucracy gone mad,” AHA NSW CEO Paul Nicolaou said today. Mr Nicolaou said he was stunned to hear a licensing officer had be

Reports of a police warning to a publican who offered free beers to the firefighters who helped save his pub was evidence of a “bureaucracy gone mad,” AHA NSW CEO Paul Nicolaou said today.

Mr Nicolaou said he was stunned to hear a licensing officer had been sent to warn the Catherine Hill Bay Hotel about breaking alcohol guidelines after a TV report featuring the hotelier’s generosity to local off-duty firefighters.

The hotelier had shouted beers and bacon and egg rolls to the hardworking firefighters who had helped save his hotel from a blaze that destroyed three houses.

“In a time of community crisis this sort of small-minded regulation is a disgrace,” Mr Nicolaou said. “Someone needs to be reprimanded for this, and the community needs to be told, not just a denial that it occurred.”

“What’s the harm in offering tired firefighters a bacon and egg roll and a beer?

“What’s next? Police fining fire tankers for breaking the speed limit?

“It’s the licensing officer who has done the wrong thing here not the hotelier. The Liquor Promotion Guidelines says that extreme discounts are unacceptable as a promotion. This isn’t a promotion – it’s a very well earned thankyou from a grateful publican!!”

Mr Nicolaou said hotels in fire affected areas were doing all they could to help those in need with many full to capacity.

“I don’t like to single anyone out but the Royal Hotel at Springwood for example is doing all it can to help fire victims,” he said.

“The Imperial at Mount Victoria has also been a non-official evacuation centre for those affected.

“This is a time for us all to work together – not impose “nanny-state” regulations on people trying to do their best to say thank you.”

Source: Australian Hotels Association, 22 October 2013