Pubs reject punishment for drunken patrons

Date
    December 11, 2012


Punishing hotels and pubs for the drunken behaviour of patrons by introducing mandatory closing hours would be unfair, the Australian Hotels Association said, responding to a study which found drinking culture has become out-of-hand.     :-?

 

The Association's director of policing and membership in NSW, John Green, said venues had already introduced tighter security measures such as CCTV, ID scanners and security guards in their bid to stamp-out drunken behaviour and assaults.

"We shouldn't be ruled by the actions of a small number of people," Mr Green said.

"Mandatory closing of venues at a set time puts significant pressure on infrastructure. If you tip everyone out on the street at once, you put strain upon taxis, buses and trains as well as policing services."


He was responding to the Dealing with Alcohol-related Harm and the Night-time Economy report released on Monday, which found that increasing the price of alcohol in bottle shops and introducing mandatory closing hours in licensed venues would significantly curb alcohol-related crime.   

The report from Melbourne's Deakin University found a culture of "pre-loading" on alcohol before going to pubs and clubs was causing alcohol-related crime, violence, hospital admissions, assault and death, while extended trading hours meant people were drinking for longer.

People were increasingly trying to avoid high alcohol prices in venues, it found, with about one in 10 people drinking 11 standard drinks or more before reaching a venue.     :o

Mr Green said the figures showed liquor stores should be the target rather than venues.

"I don't think there is a stronger drinking culture now – it's always been there," he said.

"But we've got a situation at the moment where you can buy packaged liquor for 83 cents a can in some stores."

Lead author of the study, Peter Miller, described the Association's comments as "sad and disappointing".

He said increased security measures by venues alone were not working to curb alcohol-related crime and that transport services could easily be adjusted to accommodate mandatory closing hours.

"We don't have any evidence that the introduction of mandatory closing hours would increase strain on transport and policing," associate professor Miller said.

"We spoke to a lot of licensees [during the study] who took their duty of care seriously and I think the Australian Hotels Association is doing a very poor job in representing them."

While people may be resistant to the price of alcohol in liquor stores increasing, Professor Miller said the community was already paying more because of a strain on emergency services who had to deal with drunk and violent people.     :(

"Alcohol is not an ordinary commodity," he said.

"Once mildly intoxicated, people have reduced decision-making ability and are more likely to be victims of harm.

"They don't pick up on cues that another person is dangerous, they don't think about consequences of their actions and they tend to overreact to what they do notice."

He said there was still too much drunken violence occurring and the only way to curb that would be if governments imposed tougher regulations on the alcohol industry, including venues, stores and alcohol companies.

"There are still too many tragedies where young, very drunk men and women are ideal victims for predators, and they've been at licensed venues drinking," he said.

Data from New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows an average of 230 assaults occur between midnight and 5am in licensed premises each month, while 350 assaults take place in outdoor and public places during the same time period.     :(

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/pubs-reject-punishment-for-drunken-patrons-20121211-2b6zt.html#ixzz2EjOyEQGI

That's an original idea, punish everyone for the crimes of a few.
Cause its worked SO well every other time.  ::)

It won't stop drunken behaviour.  They'll just go and party elsewhere unsupervised and unregulated.

Stupid Nanny State.

Just barr the repeat idiots. :(

One does wonder, what ever happened to responsible serving of alcohol?.     :(   

wrote on Dec 11^th, 2012 at 7:31pm:

One does wonder, what ever happened to responsible serving of alcohol?.     :(

Irresponsible bartenders or their bosses???

(gets into stride for the Christmas Merriment only two weeks away)

It's the pig socio-fascist Staat, I tell ya, with yet another violent intrusion into our basic right to get pissed and floor our mates then make up over a cold one, a pat on the arse, and a game of cricket on the teev.... forcing us to drink at home and collapse on the lounge and snore loud all night....

You know... I haven't seen a fight down here yet.. we have a very decent-handed police presence, and they don't push buttons, so unless the boys are taking it to the fight club out of town somewhere, we don't have them.

Melly Chlistmas, Mistrer Rawrence!  ::)

Putting everyone out on the street at the same time puts stress on available transport and invariably leads to an increase in violence.

While I agree there is a time when enough is enough a manditory closing time would be self defeating in terms of solving the problems, unless of course we go back to allowing drink driving?

Let's return to the days of the 6 o'clock swill.

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/images/stories/immigration/immi-013.jpg

Its just another way to make money for the government. It has nothing to do with thekids. They dont care. They just want more money in the coffers.

SOB

Absolutely there should be.
What was wrong with the old 10 oclock closing? OK let's make it 11.30.
After that they can take their cartons and keep drinking outdoors where it will be easy for the police to round them up.

Alcohol should be exposed for the plague it is

but that won't happen

We have scum in government now.  And they're committed to destroying what's left of any remnant of decent society

In addition to exposing the plague of alcohol

alcoholics should be exposed as the cowards they are

they can't exist without the crutch of 'make believe juice'

they're too gutless and useless to accept reality

they refuse to accept who they are - what they are - and where they are

Alcohol and alcoholics wreak more damage on society than all the other crutches and ills combined

and those committed to destroying what's left of decent society make it easy for them, programme the young to fill the boots of those who've died and profit from it while society pays the real costs

But will alcoholics admit their addiction and weakness

Never.  Useless bastards

Fine, but let's sheet the responsibility home where it belongs.
Woolworths, the biggest pubowner in the country and the biggest slot machine owner in the world.
They will fight with all the power they have to stop any move to limit trading hours.

PZ547 wrote on Dec 13^th, 2012 at 2:42pm:

Alcohol should be exposed for the plague it is but that won't happen We have scum in government now.  And they're committed to destroying what's left of any remnant of decent society In addition to exposing the plague of alcohol alcoholics should be exposed as the cowards they are they can't exist without the crutch of 'make believe juice' they're too gutless and useless to accept reality they refuse to accept who they are - what they are - and where they are Alcohol and alcoholics wreak more damage on society than all the other crutches and ills combined and those committed to destroying what's left of decent society make it easy for them, programme the young to fill the boots of those who've died and profit from it while society pays the real costs But will alcoholics admit their addiction and weakness Never.  Useless bastards

You've heard of Alcoholics Anonymous, haven't you?

The first of the 12 steps is:

"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable."

Plus, not all alcoholics are violent drunks.  Many go through life without ever being detected.

How long has it been like this? I remember pubs all closing around 10pm.

SOB

hadrian_now wrote on Dec 13^th, 2012 at 2:36pm:

Absolutely there should be. What was wrong with the old 10 oclock closing? OK let's make it 11.30. After that they can take their cartons and keep drinking outdoors where it will be easy for the police to round them up.

that would be OK - IF you were allowed to drink anywhere but on licensed premises or your own home.  All these beautiful beaches, the great outdoors....yet we're not even allowed to have a friggin drink while enjoying them, lest we cop a fine for 'street drinking'.   >:(

No lets just put a time limit on the patrons, say a 2 hour stay.

dingo2 wrote on Dec 15^th, 2012 at 10:58am:

No lets just put a time limit on the patrons, say a 2 hour stay.

They can get legless in 2 hours, then take out their aggression on unsuspecting people. We need to change our drinking culture, so that people go out for a drink for enjoyment, rather than the sole purpose being to get totally plastered.