State rejects recommendations to include casinos in bid to squash alcohol-fuelled violence
Casinos will be excluded from tougher restrictions to limit alcohol-fuelled violence even as evidence shows that they contribute significantly to the number of ‘police-recorded assaults’.
Brisbane City
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Casinos will not face tougher restrictions to limit alcohol-fuelled violence after the Palaszczuk Government rejected independent findings that trouble patrons could skirt lockout laws and drink 24 hours a day there.
The independent evaluation of the laws, introduced in the wake of the devastating death of Cole Miller in a one-punch attack, recommended casinos be included in trading hours restrictions and mandatory ID scanning.
It found three of Queensland’s four casinos were contributing to a “significant number of police-recorded assaults”.
“The current exclusion of casinos from the liquor sales restrictions undermines the spirit of the legislation, the strength of the message sent by the legislation, and the restriction on the amount of liquor being sold very late at night,” the report said.
And the exemption of casinos from mandatory ID scanning laws was “allowing banned individuals to go to the casino where they can drink 24 hours a day, but not to nightclubs or bars where they are limited to 3am”.
But the government’s final response said casinos already operate under a “significant level of scrutiny” and “removal of 24-hour trading hours would be inconsistent with the government’s plans for creating a ‘new world city’ for Brisbane, the intent of the development of Queen’s Wharf Brisbane”.
It only partly supported a recommendations for an independent evaluation of the impact of the opening of the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane casino.
The review of trends between 2016 and 2019 did find dropping levels of assaults in Safe Night precincts, with a 49 per cent drop in serious assaults between 3am and 6am on Fridays and Saturdays across the state, and a halving in assaults at Fortitude Valley.
Recommendations accepted included the sharing of banned patrons to all venues that operate after midnight and an independent review of alcohol and drug safety education in schools.
Grant funding of $500,000 will pay for safety initiatives like roving security services and taxi marshals.
The government rejected several other recommendations, including that all safe night venues close at 3.30am, extended trading permits be ended, a minimum unit price on alcohol to push up the cost of pre-packaged alcohol and discourage “pre-loading”, and a levy on venues to fund support services.
Cole Miller, 18, was set upon and died following a random, one-punch attack Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley in January 2016.
His family welcomed the initiatives, with brother and sister Billy and Kate saying they were thankful night precincts could be made safer for other young people.
“There’s a big, big piece missing and in our family I feel like, we, the children, were a quarter each, and I feel like we’re missing a quarter,” Ms Miller said of her younger brother.
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