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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-10-17 Daily Xml
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ALCOHOL-FUELLED VIOLENCE

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:21): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier advise the house of measures the government is taking to address alcohol-fuelled violence?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (14:21): I thank the honourable member for her question. We have all been, of course, shocked by recent appalling acts of violence linked to licensed venues, including the tragic deaths of Henk van Oosterom and Christopher Hatzis, and, of course, the serious assault on Jason Lindsley, whose father, I understand, is with us today.

Earlier today, I released for public consultation a draft late night trading code of practice, and I would like to thank the Attorney for all his hard work on preparing that document. We are going to consult widely on the code. What has been urged upon us by both Nat Cook from the Sammy D Foundation and, of course, Doug Lindsley, is that they want to see a consensus in the South Australian community about this—not just because they want to see it pass the South Australian parliament, and we know these things have got into trouble before when we have tried to advance them in the upper house—but because crucially there is a public awareness and education role here about the choices people make when they go out to these late night premises, choices which should be about going out and having a great night and having some fun, but we know that it can end in tragedy when things get out of control.

This is only one part of a very significant policy response to this question. It is probably also worth saying that the police minister just the other day released some crime statistics which demonstrate that, in the last 12 months and, indeed, over the last 10 years, we've seen a continuing fall in victim reported crime here in this state. Indeed, serious assaults are down by 60 per cent over the last 10 years. There is no room for complacency because there are some very unsafe places in our community. Perhaps some of the most unsafe places are late at night around our licensed premises where too many of our young people are coming home, or not coming home at all indeed, after a serious assault.

Today we will be consulting widely on a code that will be engaging South Australians—the hospitality sector, traders, a range of groups—everyone has to play their role in getting the answers here. Crucially, we will also be talking to the young people who make these decisions. Young people, we know when you engage them, and you talk to them, come up with sensible solutions and they are also more likely to be part of the solution if you do ask them about that. The Sammy D Foundation is going to help us in that regard. They already have a fine network of young people who are used to speaking with other young people and we are confident that their work will allow us to get the answers.

Under the late night code, there will be a staggered set of responses depending on the lateness of the evening, or the earliness of the morning, and the size of the venue. So it is a differentiated response; there are escalating responses. We have got to get this balance right between making sure you that you can go out and have a great time without having unnecessary restrictions on how you enjoy yourself, and also making sure we get the balance right of making sure that venues can operate without unnecessary burdens. We do not want to discourage these small venues that we think will add to the liveliness of our cities.

The sorts of things we are talking about include general applications, making sure that there are taxi ranks available for everyone around licensed premises. After 2am there will be further restrictions: venues that remain open will be required to implement measures including using non-glassware, not serving discounted or free alcohol and not supplying more than four drinks at a time. After 2am they will be restricted to not serving drinks commonly known as shots, and not serving drinks with more than 30 ml of spirits.

After 3am we propose that entrance of new customers will not be permitted into venues. That means if you are in a venue you can stay there, but new patrons cannot enter. We know that there are a lot of people who drift around between venues and who hang around outside venues who become a real part of the problem, so this is targeted at that.

Venues that trade after 2am with more than 200 patrons, in prescribed areas, will have to have high definition CCTV in entrances and exits as well as metal detectors and drink marshals. These—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker. I understand that the Premier has used his four minutes and a little bit more.

The SPEAKER: Yes; Premier, time has expired. Have you nearly finished?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I will wind up, Madam Speaker. I was trying to supply some important information to the house—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: This is all directed—

Mrs REDMOND: Madam Speaker, a point of order please. The rules introduced by the government specifically state that the four minute rule is to be applied, and the only discretion rests where there has been interjection. There has been none on this answer.

The SPEAKER: That is the standing order, so I ask the Premier to sit down.

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