Fortitude Valley club owners set to pass on cost of compulsory ID scanners
A NIGHT out in Fortitude Valley is about to get more expensive from July 1 when licensees add on the cost of operating new compulsory ID scanners – Valley club owners say they are being singled-out.
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A NIGHT out in Fortitude Valley is about to get more expensive from July 1 when licensees add on the cost of operating new compulsory ID scanners.
The cost to rent and operate the scanners will be in the thousands each month and the financial impost is threatening the livelihood of the Valleys’ boutique bars.
Some clubs will have no choice but to raise their drink prices while others, like small venue operators Elie Moubarak and Michael Thompson will either seek a reduction in their licensed trading hours and or simply shut by 10pm mid-week to avoid another government impost on their businesses.
From July 1, all bars licenced to open beyond 12am will have to operate an ID scanner from 10pm regardless if they shut by, or before, the stroke of midnight.
It will cost each establishment $5,200 per scanner, per year, in rent.
The scanners, which have been introduced by the Palaszczuk Government to curb alcohol-related violence, must be operated by a licenced security guard who is hired on a minimum of four hour shift.
Mr Thompson, who runs Barbara in Warner St, Fortitude Valley, said under the new laws operating a scanner in his 100 capacity venue will set him back a minimum $900 a week which includes $100 for the scanner and $800 in wages.
Currently, Mr Thompson only hires a security guard on the Friday and Saturday’s which are the only nights he trades past midnight.
“One of our main issues is that Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday are nights we operate until 12am and that means I’d have to have an ID scanner with a security guards (from 10pm).” Mr Thompson told The Courier-Mail.
“Our course of action is reducing our licenced hours, except for Friday or Saturday, so despite the fact we close at midnight anyway, you still have to have an ID scanner from 10pm with a security guard manning it and I simply can’t cover the costs,” he said.
“I’ll be adjusting my licence so I am only licensed to open past midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and that will only save me a $1000 in licence fees a year but I’m spending $5,000 a year on the rental of an ID scanner for two nights a week.”
Mr Moubarak, who runs The APO bar and restaurant on Ann St, said he would be taking the same path as Mr Thompson.
He said his business could not absorb the cost and neither could it afford to pass it off on to customers because it would make them, and other small bars, non-competitive with bigger venues.
“The government hasn’t thought it through. It’s a massive impact on small business,” Mr Moubarak said.
“The fact a security guard is the only one who can operate it so we will close earlier on Tuesday, Wednesday’s Thursday’s and Sundays.
“That means will have less turnover and less staff but less costs.”
Mr Moubarak said small businesses like his own bar and restaurant which has been open for 18 months, have helped improve the image of the Valley and made it more of a place to socialise.
“This has not been thought through properly and small businesses like ours are going to suffer.”
One major bar owner, who did not want to be named said the government was basically introducing “prohibition by legislation”.
Our Nightlife Queensland secretary Nick Braban said he has written to the Labor Government to ask that ID scanners only used on Friday and Saturday nights.
He said forcing a bar owners to operate an ID scanner on week nights when there are already running at a loss was counter-productive.
“Operating ID scanners is fine on weekends but it’s during the week when it will blow the costs of small businesses out of the water when they wouldn’t necessarily have a security guard on,” Mr Braban said.
“A large venue pays the same licence as a small venue as it’s purely based on hours and this is another unfair aspect to disadvantage small bars.
“If a licence fee was judged on capacity, with loadings around risk, compliance history and the level of incidence at the venue, that would be more equitable.”
Another major venue operator told The Courier-Mail that it cost $600 a day in electricity before they even factored in wages and other costs.
Boutique bar licensees already pay between $16,000 to $24,000 per annum for a liquor licence as well music copyright fees, more than $12,000 a year for insurance and about $60,000 in rent.
Mr Thompson said licensees were already tried to absorb the six-monthly CPI increase on alcohol and would struggle absorbing financial brunt of implementing ID scanners.
“We are at a tipping point when it comes to how much we can charge for a beer or a cocktail and I do not want to be charging $10 a schooner.”
Attorney General Yvette D’Ath said the government has no intention to revisit the laws surrounding ID scanners in Safe Night Precincts.
She told The Courier-Mail that patrons would feel much safer knowing the ID scanners were in operation every day of the week and their purpose was to enforce any legal issued bans on patrons.
“We believe these laws will only be effective if they apply across the board in all Safe Night Precincts trading after midnight,” Ms D’Ath said.
“It makes no sense to allow people on banning orders access on some nights but not others.
“ID scanners identify people on banning orders and unless all venues in Safe Night Precincts have them, people with a history of alcohol-fuelled violence will ‘shop around’ for a venue.”
She said the cost of implementing the scheme was being offset with a one-off payment of $4,000 to each venue.
“Every licensee in Queensland has an obligation to contribute to providing a safe night time environment for patrons, especially in safe night precincts.
TYPICAL COSTS FOR A SMALL FORTITUDE VALLEY BAR WITH A CAPACITY OF 100:
Expenses per month: (from July 1)
Wages: $22,000
Rent: $5,000
Licence: & Subscription fees: $2,500
Security: $4,000 ($6,000)
Cleaning: $2,000
Insurance: $1,000
Electricity: $1,000
Waste Collection: $400
Maintenance/repairs: $300
Telephone: $200
ID Scanner rental: $0 ($425)
Misc: $500
Total: $38,900 ($41325)
*Figures provided by Our Nightlife Queensland
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