Fortitude Valley bar blames impending lockout laws as it shuts its doors for good

LOCKOUT laws have claimed their first victim before they’ve even begun as a Fortitude Valley bar closes its doors and its owner warns hundreds more venues will do the same.

Prestige bar owner Matt Bellward says there is “just no way we can keep going after the lockout comes into effect”.

THE first alleged casualty of the State Government’s controversial tougher lockout laws has closed its doors.

Prestige Bar in Fortitude Valley – which serves top-shelf alcohol and provides cabaret-style entertainment – has shut after director Matthew Bellward decided that it could not sustain the expected downturn of a 1am lockout.

QUEENSLAND: Lockout laws explained

The bar had been open for 10 months and had a ­licence to operate until 3am.

As a result of the closure, 20 staff are out of a job.

“As a director, I have a responsibility to the investors in the group and there is just no way we can keep going after the lockout comes into effect,” Mr Bellward said.

The first stage of the lockout, calling last drinks at 3am, commences on July 1, but venues in nightclub precincts will be required to ­decide whether to introduce a 1am lockout by February.

If venues decide to introduce a 1am lockout, they will be able to continue serving alcohol until 3am, but if they do not go ahead with the measure, the last drinks call will be brought forward to 2am.

Mr Bellward said he expected 20 per cent of venues in the Valley to close if the 1am lockout is introduced.

“That is peak time in the Valley and if you prevent people from entering anywhere after that, it will have a huge (negative) impact,” he said.

Mr Bellward, who has worked in the hospitality sector interstate and overseas, said the new laws were the most draconian he had encountered.

But a spokesman for Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said venues would use the lockout laws as an excuse for making commercial decisions.

“It is difficult to understand how a business that opens after the Government says it will introduce lockout laws, and closes before the laws come into effect, can hold the lockout laws responsible,” she said.

“We will see over the coming months a concerted effort by some in the community to blame business decisions to close bars on lockouts.”