New powers would hit venues
Venues and community organisations are concerned about powers being sought by the City of Sydney to further restrict opening hours for pubs and clubs.
An amendment to the Late Night Trading DCP would allow council to force venues on trial opening hours to revert to base hours on a single complaint, which could only be appealed via the courts.
This would apply only to new development applications, something Stonewall licensee Craig Bell said would be a nightmare for venues operating out of heritage buildings where DAs were needed for even very small changes.
“The moment we submit a DA they will be able to put the venue back onto a trial period and say we shouldn’t be able to trade past 2am,” Bell told Sydney Star Observer.
“If this goes through I will not put a DA in to improve this business in any way shape or form.”
Bell said the late night trading industry had moved to reduce the number of assaults inside venues, and problems on the streets should be dealt with by police.
“I would like to see police able to deposit troublemakers into sobering rooms where they can be supervised until they are no longer drunk,” Bell said.
“We have a safe injecting room for heroin, yet we don’t have a facility in this whole state to manage intoxicated persons.”
Arq and Imperial owner Shad Danesi said an independent authority was needed to assess complaints.
“If allegations are made they should be tested before an independent person before a venue suffers harm to its business,” he said.
“Council should not have the power to do financial harm to a business on the basis of allegations which may later may be proven to be false.
“Police and council already have the power to close down out of control venues for the night – they don’t need this additional power.”
Oxford Hotel licensee Roger Z said a holistic approach would prove more beneficial.
“This issue cuts across the board — from alcohol companies, to advertising, to police, to venues themselves. Just picking one area and trying to solve it all through that will probably end up having the reverse effect,” he said.
Z said the clustering of services for homeless and mentally ill people and those with drug and alcohol problems near the nightclub strip was an issue.
New Mardi Gras (NMG) and ACON were still analysing the city’s plans but hoped there would be consultation with stakeholders.
NMG co-chair Peter Urmson said changes should not punish the wrong people.
“I would like to think there would be other measures that could be taken first to try to address this issue so that the majority isn’t penalised for the actions of a minority,” he said.
ACON CEO Nicolas Parkhill said any amendments to the DCP needed to consider that establishments in the Oxford St area were some of the only places GLBTI people could socialise in relative safety.
“Any amendments must also consider that ACON runs a range of outreach and health promotion programs for the GLBT community in many venues in the Oxford St precinct and any restrictions on the operations of these venues could significantly impact on our ability to promote HIV/STI prevention messages and distribute safe sex resources,” he said.
A City of Sydney spokesperson said the Late Night Trading DCP permitted licensed premises to trade up to 24 hours a day, providing they did so safely and the amendment encouraged the responsible management of late night trading premises.
“We are committed to continuing to work with licensees, police and residents to improve safety and the sustainability of our late night precincts so that everybody can safely enjoy a fun and diverse night out,” the spokesman said.
The changes to the City of Sydney Late Night Trading DCP are yet another attack by Clover Moore and her Council administration on night clubs and bars in the City. I have seen the DCP in operation for 2 years now and it is clearly abused as a stick to pick off hotels one at a time in favour of small groups of anti hotel activists. The Council and people seeking electoral popularity should not be the defacto police of pubs and clubs – it needs to be a more independent authority not subject to the pressure of a small number of anti hotel/alcohol campaigners who have the ear of the Lord Mayor and her anti-hotel Councillors. An arms length process accessible to all – similar to the activities of the Land & Environment Court.
As to comparisons to San Francisco and 2am closing – on my ‘official’ visit two years ago I examined the issue and found that the ‘progressives’ in the GLBT community and broader community were campaigning for the deregulation of trading hours on basis of the unreasonable restriction the laws placed upon the rights of law abiding responsible citizens to a night out if they so decide. I also experienced the 2am emptying of bars and the ensuing masses on streets mobbing taxis and even saw police manning a taxi rank to maintain some order. 2am closing is no ‘silver bullet’ but is the ultimate agenda of Clover Moore and her ‘baby boomer’ Council.
At this rate more people will have house parties, take the money out of business in the city, and put the troubles back in the residential blocks where they belong! Teehee.
How about the venues stay open 24/7 but stop selling alcohol and turn off the pokies from 2am till 10am?
To still want to drink after 2am. Get real people. You must be kidding. Also, Sydney is not LA, San Fran, London or Montreal. Heaven forbid.
Andrew, is Sydney “more global” than San Francisco, LA, London, Montreal?
I doubt it! All these places close at 2am.
Eye scanners Geoff? Get real, this is called a personal identifier and as such the collection, storage & destruction have strict protocols wich I highly doubt can be expected by most venues.
Problem 1: People don’t take responsibility of their actions
Problem 2: Police don’t have the resources to deal with 1
Problem 3: Assault reports are incorrect, homophopia outside a gay venue is blamed on the gay venue not the straight venue the attacker left metres away
Yeah what andrew said, Newcastle had hours restricted (cos we were the supposed trial area for new laws) many pubs and nite clubs have now closed to unviability, and the remaining pubs and clubs had to accomodate the closure of the other clubs/pubs. It would be the death of the pub/club culture as it was here in newcastle. If you dont like pubs and clubs, don’t go there people, but people who like a drink should be able to have a drink , whatever time it is of morning. Most people dont even start til late at night, so 5 am end is still only a few hours of drinking. who wants to drink for just an hour or two? whats the point of that.
Closing certain venues early is not the answer as the ferals just move onto the next place ! We should all still have the CHOICE to be out at whatever time we like and Sydney is supposed to be a global city ? Hardly !
If people aren’t grown up enough to be responsible for their actions, then the state HAS no choice but to step in.
Personally I think we should go back to the days of early closing for general venues and have more private member clubs (and I don’t mean like RSL’s, proper Member Clubs). This will stop the dross that we currently have on the streets trying to score their next drink and encourage responsible people back out. It’s just not fun trying to dodge the drunks and walk over the paralytic.
I cannot see any valid reason for venues trading past 2.00am. However there are plenty of good arguments for closing them earlier, even for opening them later.
2.00am is good enough for San Francisco, LA, London, Montreal and more (some close earlier), then it’s good enough for Sydney.
I’d rather see an argument about venues closing earlier than later
The only way this issue will ever be resolved (and problem gambling) is by utilising technology (such as retina scanners) that check each patron before entry and if they have a history with alcohol or gambling, then they are stopped from entering.
I’m sure that there are arguments that say such a system is too expensive – that’s BS. It would cost a fraction of the revenues that are made from Alcohol and Gambling to implement.
Unfortunately revenues override the safety of the public / patrons and make the job for Police 2000 times more difficult than it should be.
WTF does Mardigras have to do with this? Why quote the president? What are his credentials to have an opinion on anything? He’s been president for what – 2 months? To date he’s put on the worst Sleaze ever and cancelled Halloween party. Sounds like an expert on all things gay to me.