Bar boss hits out at govt report

COOLANGATTA partygoers who do the right thing will be the ones punished if the Queensland Government adopts a controversial plan to reduce trading hours for pubs, clubs and bottle shops.

Neverland Bar manager Pablo Millane has slammed the main recommendation of the report, saying it will punish those trying to enjoy a fun and safe night out.

“There should just be harsher penalties for those who are committing the crimes, not this,” he said.

“I don’t think the government is looking at this the right way.”

The report, tabled in parliament on Thursday, suggested 5am licences would be banned, with venues instead trading until 4am in “entertainment precincts” and 3am elsewhere, with an across-the-board 2am lockout on weekends.

Opening hours for detached bottle shops should be limited to 10am to 9pm in a bid to stop people boozing on cheap drinks before nights out.

Bottle shops would also be banned from advertising discount alcohol.

It recommends weekday trading hours be reduced to no later than 2am in areas identified as “entertainment precincts” and 1am everywhere else. Mr Millane said it made no sense.

“From what I can see most of the violent attacks happen on Fridays and Saturdays. Changing the weekday hours will do nothing,” he said.

Parliamentary committee chairwoman, Labor MP Barbara Stone, said a key plank of the changes would be local management plans and the identifying of entertainment precincts.

“We are expecting councils, state government, and all the relevant stakeholders to sit down with a management plan on how they are going to support these trading hours, as well as patrons and the industry,” Ms Stone told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday.

“In the past we haven’t done this.”

The report also called for more public transport and taxis late at night, as well as more police, better lighting and more public toilets.