No need to review Newcastle lockout laws: pubs boss
ROLLY de With believes there’s no need for a review of Newcastle’s pub lockout laws, and says he does not want to see a winding back of the controversial restrictions on Newcastle’s night life.
Mr de With, the president of the Newcastle branch of the Australian Hotels Association NSW and managing director of the Junction Hotel, has in the past been a vocal critic of restrictions on trading hours in Newcastle, writing as recently as April last year that Newcastle’s ‘‘once vibrant’’ night-time economy had become ‘‘a ghost town’’.
But asked whether he would support a government review of the Newcastle restrictions in line with a planned rethink of similar laws applied to Kings Cross in Sydney, Mr de With said it was ‘‘unnecessary’’.
‘‘Newcastle and Kings Cross are separate issues, and I don’t see the necessity of a review in Newcastle,’’ he said.
‘‘We’re not supporting a wind-back [and] there’s certainly no move to promote a review of the lock out laws.’’
Mr de With denied that his comments represented a shift in the hotels association’s position, saying it had merely opposed ‘‘wedge groups’’ who were ‘‘completely anti-alcohol’’.
‘‘We would always look at the effectiveness and necessity of certain elements [of the restrictions], but this has been going on since 2008, it has been a long time and hoteliers have been working with police and the office of liquor and gambling throughout that,’’ he said.
However Mr de With did state that the restrictions have negatively impacted on the city’s night time venues.
‘‘Certainly there has been a dramatic downturn in business in the [Newcastle] city and the way certain hotels operate has been impacted, some have gone out of business, but you have to look at the impact as a whole,’’ he said.
He said much of the positive impact on the city’s night life had been driven by hotels, including improved relationships with police and improved identity scanning.
‘‘A lot of good work is being done [and] the community is accepting of what is occurring in our local area,’’ he said.
It comes after Fairfax Media revealed this week that the state government was planning an early review of controversial laws similar to those in Newcastle that require licensed premises in central Sydney and Kings Cross to lock out patrons from 1.30am and stop serving alcohol at 3am.
On Monday a spokeswoman for acting Premier Troy Grant said a review would be carried out in June, when the government received 12-month data from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
Source : The Newcastle Herald Michael McGowan January 14th 2015
