Liquor Licensing

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (14:27): My question is directed to the Minister for Consumer and Business Services. Minister, can you inform the house about the review into South Australia's liquor licensing system?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:28): Yes, I can provide some information, actually.

Mr PISONI: Point of order, sir: can I please refer the clock to the four-minute mark? Thank you.

The SPEAKER: That's been done.

Mr Pisoni: Now.

The SPEAKER: Yes, it's been done now. I didn't imply it had been done retrospectively.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I think, as we say in the law, nunc pro tunc—that's what we would say. Anyway, back to the main conversation. As members would be aware, in October of last year the government published a liquor licensing discussion paper as part of the review of the Liquor Licensing Act. Subsequently, the Hon. Timothy Anderson QC was appointed to conduct the independent review on 30 November last year.

The review had very broad terms of reference that looked at all aspects of the current liquor licensing regime and looked to explore ways to reduce red tape and promote a safer drinking culture whilst, at the same time, creating, maintaining and supporting vibrancy in our city and around our state. The public consultation regarding the discussion paper took place over a four-month period with submissions closing on 29 January this year. I am advised that a total of 89 submissions were received in response to the discussion paper, the majority of which I believe are actually published online on the AGD website—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I'm just telling you they are there. The member for Bragg obviously did criticise me quite harshly yesterday about only having something put on my website, and I'm attempting to tell everybody now.

The commissioner held face-to-face discussions with many of the parties in order to further flesh out the points of view that they had expressed in their submissions. He also conducted consultations and meetings with officials from elsewhere around Australia to actually find out what the comparative legislative arrangements were in other states and see whether there were improved opportunities by looking at models elsewhere. Ultimately, the review has resulted in some 129 recommendations, which are directed towards reform of the liquor licensing regime. As I mentioned, these are now published on the Attorney-General's website, and I invite everybody to have a look at them.

The path from here is that the government is currently considering the review and the recommendations, and in due course, once we have had an opportunity to give them full consideration, the government will come to a settled position about its response to those recommendations. I don't expect that to occur in the far distant future, but we are working towards that, and it would be our intention then to go to the next stage of preparing draft legislation.

At this point in time, it's not clear to me whether that legislation would involve amendments to the current legislation or take the form of a completely new bill, which would replace the existing legislation. That will be a matter we will determine in the fullness of time. It would be, obviously, our intention, once we get to the point of having draft legislation, to consult with particularly interested parties who might have suggestions about finetuning or improvement of the exact contents of that legislation. Just to make it clear, we regard the consultation process that has been undertaken by Mr Anderson QC to be the consultation in relation to this matter, and we look forward to considering his recommendations.