Queensland Passes Lockout Laws Despite Spirited Opposition

Other states’ experience of lockout laws clearly demonstrates a lack of evidence that they are effective in addressing alcohol-related violence, Queensland’s Shadow Attorney-General Ian Walker has told State Parliament.

Walker was debating the Palaszczuk Government’s Tackling Alcohol-Fuelled Violence Amendment Bill, which passed early Thursday morning with the support of Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) MPs Rob Katter and Shane Knuth.

Key measures included in the legislation include:

• A 2am last-drinks call statewide from July 1, with venues in nightclub precincts able to serve alcoholic drinks until 3am;
• The banning of shots and other rapid-consumption drinks after midnight;
• A 1am lockout for 15 Safe Night Precincts to be introduced on February 1, 2021 (delayed under a compromise with KAP); and
• No new approvals for bottleshops to trade after 10pm (existing approvals remain).

Shadow Attorney-General Walker said the government had acted as though it was “black-and-white” that its proposal would work, even though in Victoria, “lockout laws were tried and abandoned because they were not felt to be successful”.

“The Victorian government of the same colour and persuasion as this government has made a very clear decision that it has looked at it and that it is not working,” he said.

“The efficacy or otherwise of these measures is still very much a live debate around the world and of course here in Australia, and we have seen that only in the last couple of weeks.”

Walker said the recent reaction of the NSW public to its legislation should also have given Queensland pause for thought.

“When that state’s Premier went out lauding that only in the last week or ten days, an extraordinary public backlash saying, ‘I think you’ve got it wrong, mate,’ has led him to appoint former High Court Judge Ian Callinan to review that measure,” Walker said.

“So it is not a matter of settled practice and procedure obviously accepted by any reasonable person in our community that these things work.”

Nick Braban, President of industry lobby group Our Nightlife Queensland, said the laws will affect the livelihoods of small business owners, staff and musicians.

“We must all now prepare for how we will manage these fundamentally altered business conditions, and we must now rally to continue the fight against this ludicrous legislation,” he said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk meanwhile hailed the Bill as “a historic step forward for reducing alcohol-fuelled violence” in Queensland.

“The evidence is clear: reduced trading hours leads to reduced violence, and that’s what this Bill delivers,” she said.

The laws will be independently reviewed after two years in July, 2018.

Print PDF