It is shaping as the Labor government’s signature issue of the year, but it needs support from the rural-focused Katter’s Australian party, while also facing opposition from music venues and the alcohol industry

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The irony of the Queensland government’s push for lockout laws is that its fate rests with two politicians whose constituencies would be wholly unaffected by their introduction.

In a hung parliament, with the Palaszczuk government already having lost the support of its former backbencher-turned-independent Billy Gordon for a proposal to wind back trading hours for late-night venues to tackle alcohol-fuelled violence, it is Katter’s Australian party that holds the whip hand.

Cole Miller: thousands attend Brisbane rally to honour one-punch victim Read more

It is not exactly a role being relished by Robbie Katter and fellow MP Shane Knuth, whose largely rural seats lie far from the coastal city centres that would feel the lockout’s impact.

“It’s frustrating that we’ve been drawn into this position,” Katter tells Guardian Australia.

“We’d prefer spending the first week of parliament debating a gas reserve policy rather than having this issue dominate proceedings.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Katter’s Australian party Queensland MPs Robbie Katter (left) and Shane Knuth. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

The bill, which would bring Queensland closely into line with a contentious regime in Sydney’s city centre by forcing a 2am statewide closure of venues – or a 3am closure with a 1am lockout or “one-way door” policy in designated entertainment precincts – is shaping as the Labor government’s signature issue of early 2016.

It represents the culmination of a stance long held by cabinet minister Anthony Lynham, a maxillofacial surgeon who for years before entering politics spoke out about the role of the alcohol trade in delivering catastrophic injuries to his operating table.

The government’s explicitly stated bid to change the drinking culture in Queensland by winding back late-night drinking hours – largely unheralded before its election but part of its platform nevertheless – gained momentum in the wake of the death of Cole Miller in a 3.30am assault in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

Cole Miller: Minister calls for end to 'fear mongering campaign' against lockout laws Read more

The debate proper begins when parliament resumes next week, with premier Annastacia Palaszczuk indicating she will “sit down with the crossbenchers and put very firmly on the table why we are taking these measures”.

The Queensland establishment is largely onside: the law society, public health experts and bodies such as the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian College of Surgeons, some academics, senior police and health service providers have all came out strongly in favour of a cut in trading hours.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest A portrait of 18 year-old one-punch attack victim Cole Miller is placed near the coffin during his funeral service in Brisbane on 13 January. Miller died in hospital from massive brain trauma after allegedly being hit in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

Notably, that support does not extend to the lockout – a term which the parliamentary legal affairs and safety committee recommended be amended to “one-way door” in the legislation.

The committee report on the bill noted there was little data from elsewhere to show lockouts in themselves helped reduce violence.

But respected drug and alcohol researchers such as Jake Najman told the committee there was ample and credible evidence from overseas studies to show a strong link between reduced trading hours and venues serving alcohol, and a drop in violence and injuries.

The committee report acknowledged limits on some data used to discern the issue locally. It heard alcohol-related hospitalisations in Queensland had risen 38% to 45,197 in the three years to 2014-15. However, hospital data did not identify the source of alcohol consumption that led to the harm.



Poll: Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's popularity plummets Read more

The Queensland Department of Justice, which contains the office of liquor and gaming regulation, acknowledged that “the 1am – 2am period is the ‘highest risk’ period for alcohol-fuelled violence”.

Those who opposed the laws in submissions to the committee consisted mainly of industry, employees and patrons of late-night entertainment venues.



Voices in the media against the proposed laws have been largely confined to the Liberal National opposition – which has been branded as conflicted by Labor in view of the $374,000 in donations it took from the alcohol industry from 2011 to 2014 – and licensed venue operators themselves.

Most of the latter have argued Queensland does not have the levels of violence in NSW that triggered that state’s lockout laws, which are now the subject of renewed controversy and a scheduled review by former high court judge Ian Callinan.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police officers take a young person into custody during schoolies week on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Photograph: Dean Saffron/AAP

A group of operators in Brisbane’s Caxton street – the watering holes that often host revelers from football games and concerts at nearby Suncorp Stadium – has claimed the assault rate in Brisbane was 63% lower than in Newcastle after lockout laws and other reforms were implemented there in 2008.

One notable group that has complained about being ignored by the state government in the lead-up to the bill’s debate is the QMusic forum representing live music venues.

JC Collins, former bass player with Powderfinger and now the operator of Brisbane venue the Triffid, says the lack of consultation with a group facing dire impact from the laws is “disturbing”.

Lawyer says trial over Cole Miller's death at risk from 'electronic lynch mob' Read more

“There’s been nothing. They went and talked to the craft brewery association – but they didn’t talk to any of the music venues in town, they didn’t talk to QMusic,” he says.

Collins says the trading hours that stand to be lost under the laws to smaller music venues hosting 50 to 300 patrons – places such as the Black Bear Lodge, Brightside and the Zoo – spells doom for many.

He adds that his own venue will not be affected.

But Collins fears for the future of a music scene that “punches way above its weight” thanks in part to organic growth through the 1990s which allowed bands commanding national attention such as Powderfinger, Regurgitator and Custard to remain active locally.

“All the information gathered around the country shows music venues are safe venues and I can tell you from the Triffid point of view people don’t drink very much when the bands are on,” he says.

“If the band wraps at 12.30 or 1.30am it’s the hours after the bands wrap up that they actually do their best trade for the week.

“Venues operate on such a tight line of budget as it is because there are so many restrictions with licensing, security and all the things you need, PAs, marketing – you need much more than just a normal nightclub because you’ve got to market bands and other things every week.

“If you take away that couple of hours of trading three nights a week from these smaller venues, where bands like Powderfinger cut their teeth and learned how to play in the early days, they’ll be closed.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People protest against the Queensland government’s proposed lockout laws outside the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Brisbane on 12 February. Photograph: Cleo Fraser/AAP

Collins says bands may then choose to “pack up and go to Melbourne where they’re wanted”.

Teenager gravely injured after being assaulted by four men in Brisbane Read more

He says the government has shown a fundamental misunderstanding of the way music revellers enjoy a night out. A 1am lockout would put an end to the typical movement across venues where “you see a band here, then see a DJ who’s from another band, catch up with someone over there, that’s the nature of how people go out in the Valley”.

There is also the different drinking culture attached to the music scene.

Collins says in 20 years of playing live with Powderfinger, he can recall one violent incident: “The Pineapple hotel – a little scuffle behind the bar which was over in seconds – and I think they were friends.”

“People are not going out to get loaded, they’re going to see acts,” he says.

The venues have put forward a proposal to the Palaszczuk government seeking their exemption from lockouts but agreeing to a 3am closure.

They and the nightclubs have also put forward compulsory ID scanning as an alternative.

Nightclub owner Les Pullos, who says it was a “very good alternative” that would create a “country town dynamic” where all venues could identify known troublemakers, put the case to the committee in disconcerting terms.

“The scanning needs to be a bit like the airport. You cannot scan everyone. Do they profile at the airport? Of course they do if someone is of Middle Eastern appearance,” he says.

Sydney lockout laws: alcohol policing didn't start with the Baird government| Liam Hogan Read more

“In our case, if there is a group of young blokes on a football trip from Townsville you are going to scan every one of them, but if there are three pretty girls in pretty dresses and Louis Vuitton handbags you are probably not going to scan them but you are probably going to let them in.”

But scanning is opposed by the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties because of its potential for “gross privacy violations” and its demonstrated lack of effectiveness in curbing violence in other places such as Canada.

In any case, scanning – like the “tough on crime” legislation blasted last year by retiring district court judge Hugh Botting as futile in preventing alcohol-driven assaults – is not on the table for the government.

However, the Brisbane city-centric concerns of the likes of Collins have a very real chance of gaining an unlikely and largely accidental champion in KAP once the debate hits the floor of parliament.

Katter stresses he acknowledges the “rationale” on both sides of the argument, including Lynham’s.

But he warns the Labor bill will “definitely” need changes to win KAP support, if it does at all.

Mike Baird defends Sydney lockout laws: city is 'safer and more vibrant' Read more

“We want to be convinced. If we vote for this legislation, we want to be sure that it does its job,” he says.

Katter notes recent Griffith University research around “pre-loading”, which shows 70% of alcohol is drunk by night-time revellers before they go out, with 20% of them also consuming illicit drugs.

If a government is fair dinkum about tackling alcohol-fuelled violence, you have to go back to the source Robbie Katter

“It’s hard to see at all how that is addressed with this legislation,” he says.

But KAP’s chief concern is the impact of trading restrictions on the “fragile economies” of central and north Queensland centres such as Townsville and Cairns.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rudd’s Pub in Nobby, near Toowoomba, is the kind of ‘outback bar’ considered unlikely to be affected by any lockup laws introduced by the Queensland government. Photograph: James Shrimpton/AAP

The potential job losses would be seen to disproportionately affect young hospitality workers, in places where youth unemployment is reaching uncomfortable levels.

Katter says he and Knuth are “not ignorant” to concerns about the possible impact in the state’s south-eastern cities but says those economies are less vulnerable.

They are likewise aware of the contention in Sydney but their main takeout is that the evidence of the impact of lockout laws is “ambiguous”.

Katter notes alcohol-fuelled violence remains an issue in many places across Queensland, including in the city of Mount Isa in his own electorate.

Venues in Mount Isa already close by 3am and have voluntary lockouts staggered from midnight.

And yet the same month as Cole Miller’s death, the city was the site of a highly-publicised one-punch attack on hotel worker Melissa Abdoo, allegedly by a drunken man refused entry.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An image taken from video footage of a man allegedly attacking hotel worker Melissa Abdoo outside The Buffs Club in Mount Isa in January. Photograph: Queensland police/AAP

Katter says: “We had one of the most sickening incidents of alcohol fuelled violence in Mount Isa before Christmas and the lockout laws would not have changed that.”

Sydney lockout laws: former high court judge to head review as backlash grows Read more

One of KAP’s chief preoccupations is the high level of unemployment in outback Queensland – currently more than 15%.

Katter says measures to encourage economic development and stimulate job growth could prove as effective as lockouts in curbing violence.

“At the risk of using a cliche, a more ‘holistic’ approach,” he says.

“If a government is fair dinkum about tackling alcohol-fuelled violence, you have to go back to the source, not just treat the acute symptoms, which is somebody king-hitting someone else at 3am.”

Asked about the prospect of becoming unlikely heroes of urban dwellers opposed to lockout laws, Katter says it is KAP’s argument that what they push for the benefit of the bush is usually mutually beneficial to city-dwellers.

“It’d be good if that was returned in kind,” he says.