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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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LIQUOR LICENSING (MISCELLANEOUS) AMENDMENT BILL

Final Stages

The Legislative Council agreed to the bill with the amendments indicated by the following schedule, to which amendments the Legislative Council desires the concurrence of the House of Assembly:

No. 1. Clause 6, page 4, lines 9 to 12 [clause 6(1)]—Delete subclause (1) and substitute:

(1) Section 11A(2)—delete subsection (2) and substitute:

(2) Without limiting the matters that may be included in a code of practice, a code of practice may include measures that can reasonably be considered appropriate and adapted to the furtherance of the objects of this Act.

(1a) Section 11A—after subsection (4) insert:

(4a) The Commissioner must, before making or varying a code of practice, undertake consultation (in such manner as the Commissioner thinks fit) with persons or bodies that the Commissioner is satisfied represent the interests of licensees affected by the proposed code or variation.

No. 2. Clause 6, page 4, lines 17 and 18 [clause 6(3)]—Delete subclause (3)

No. 3. New clause, page 4, after line 18—Insert:

6A—Insertion of section 11B

After section 11A insert:

11B—Review of codes of practice

(1) The Minister must cause a review of the operation of any codes of practice published under section 11A to be conducted immediately following the first anniversary of the commencement of this section.

(2) A review under subsection (1) must be completed, and a report on the results of the review provided to the Minister, within 6 months after the first anniversary of the commencement of this section.

(3) The Minister must, within 12 sitting days after receipt of a report, cause copies of the report to be laid before each House of Parliament.

No. 4. Schedule 1, page 13, after line 23—Insert:

3—Certain codes of practice taken to be valid

(1) A code of practice, and any provision of a code of practice, that—

(a) was published under section 11A of the Liquor Licensing Act 1997 (as in force before the commencement of this clause); and

(b) is purportedly in force on the commencement of this clause,

will be taken to be valid, and always to have been valid, if the code of practice or provision would have been valid had it been published under section 11A of the Liquor Licensing Act 1997 as amended by this Act.

(2) The requirements of section 11A(4a) do not apply in relation to a code of practice referred in to subclause (1).

(3) However, no action may be taken under the Liquor Licensing Act 1997 in respect of a person's refusal or failure to comply with a provision of the Late Night Trading Code of Practice during the period commencing on 1 October 2013 and concluding on the day on which this clause comes into operation.

(4) In this clause—

Late Night Trading Code of Practice means the Late Night Trading Code of Practice under the Liquor Licensing Act 1997.

Note—

The Late Night Trading Code of Practice was published by notice in the Gazette on 6 June 2013 and came into operation on 1 October 2013.

Consideration in committee.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I move:

That the Legislative Council's amendments be agreed to.

First of all, it is my intention that the amendments be accepted. Secondly, just so that members of this house are aware of some information that officially became available to me yesterday, the total number of alcohol-related offences where the last drink location was a licensed venue in the city was 192, for the period 1 to 28 October 2011, and 205 in the same period of 2012. This year, since the introduction of the code, that figure is 152, which shows a 20.8 per cent decrease on 2011 and a 25.8 per cent decrease on 2012 during that exact same month.

Can I say that I am very pleased indeed that the Legislative Council, in its wisdom, has decided to ensure that the great work this code is doing will be preserved and protected.

Mr GRIFFITHS: I will speak for just a couple of minutes on this. There is no doubt that there has been a lengthy debate within the chambers and, indeed, publicly, about this bill and about the flow-on impacts it will have to the code, which was introduced on 1 October. There are certainly some differences held by the Liberal and Labor parties on this, but I can assure all those who are listening to this and who read this that community safety has been absolutely paramount for all of us.

I am respectful of the amendments that were moved in the upper house; indeed, I was rather intrigued. I thought there was some level of an agreement on some compromises that were moved by a couple of members that resulted in a second amendment coming through to an originally proposed amendment, for which I later found out there was not a larger level of support from the government, and that is why we reviewed our position on that late last night.

I am also respectful of the very large amount of consultation the government and the minister undertook with the Australian Hotels Association on behalf of the industry to try to get a position where there was workability from an industry perspective and, importantly, a community safety perspective, too.

I recognise that the bill has gone through. The Liberal Party does not intend to express that it does not support these amendments now that they have occurred because we understand how democracy works. My great hope is that the figures just quoted by the Attorney continue to decrease and that we continue to have a society where we have respect for others, and where, yes, we have a great time, and that facilities are continuously encouraged to establish themselves and provide wonderful entertainment for their clientele, no matter what age group they might be and whatever interests they have, but that safety is paramount. I look forward to the passage of the bill.

Motion carried.

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