Authorities won’t release data relied on to extend liquor restrictions for a third time

Tough alcohol restrictions will stay in a regional SA town, but the figures used to justify them are being kept out of reach despite claims it’s not working.

Authorities are refusing to release the data relied upon to yet again extend liquor restrictions in Port Augusta, despite locals saying the rules aren’t working.

Under the restrictions, bottle shops are barred from opening before 11am or selling to anyone travelling in a taxi, including taxi drivers.

Customers wanting wine are limited to buying one two-litre cask or one bottle of fortified wine.

Tassie Tavern employee Kenny Jaschinski said the restrictions “haven’t solved much” as incidents of public drunkenness had not decreased.

Mr Jaschinski said there were not adequate measures to support the restrictions, with nothing stopping residents buying from multiple outlets.

A worker at another bottle shop said that all the restrictions had done was decrease her work hours.

The Sunday Mail requested data Consumer Affairs Commissioner Dini Soulio relied upon to justify the latest extension.

But the Attorney-General’s Department, which include’s Mr Soulio’s office, referred inquiries to SA Police, SA Health and unspecified “local support services”.

Police said that any data given to the commissioner would be available only via a Freedom of Information request.

Tony Edmonds from City Safe, South Australian Special Operations Group. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

SA Health did not respond to a request for comment.

Tony Edmonds, a former director of City Safe, a Port Augusta Council-funded security program that closed over a year ago, said the town “hasn’t changed”.

Mr Edmonds said alcohol restrictions were “not a silver bullet”.

“If somebody wants to have a drink bad enough, there’s enough towns close to Port Augusta that they can get whatever they want to get,” Mr Edmonds said.

“I’m not saying restrictions don’t help but they’re not a solution.”

But Scott Wilson, the chief executive of the Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council, backed the restrictions.

Mr Wilson said previously it had been “difficult to get clients to come in after 8.30am because the bottle shops had been open”. Now there had been an increase in clients at the council’s Stepping Stones Drug and Alcohol Day Centre, he said.

Mr Wilson said the centre had not needed to call the police due to alcohol-related anti-social behaviour since the restrictions began.

However, he said “a lack of social services” and affordable housing in Port Augusta was contributing to drug and alcohol problems.

“People forget that some people drink alcohol because they could be hungry so they get full.

“They could also be cold and you, to a certain extent, get warm while drinking.”

Mr Edmonds said residents had pleaded to bring back City Safe and while the recent state budget committed $1.2m over four years to “reinstate” it, he “hasn’t received a call” from anyone about it.