ID scanning laws: Club owners slam minister’s comments

NIGHTCLUB venue owners have slammed Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath over her latest comments about the government’s controversial ID scanner legislation.

Camilo Martinez operates an ID scanner at the GPO in Fortitude Valley. Picture: Richard Waugh

• ID scanning a “compete shambles”
• Clubs to pass on ID scanner costs

NIGHTCLUB venue owners have slammed Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath over her comments declaring licensees just want “the young attractive female” to be able to operate ID scanners under new legislation.

Ms D’Ath told ABC Radio yesterday, as ­reported in The Courier-Mail on Tuesday, that only licensed security guards would be able to operate the scanning machines come July 1 despite the concerns raised from venue owners.

Pubs and club owners have pushed for slight changes to the laws that would allow themselves or a staff member to be able to scan the ID cards, especially while a security guard was taking a break or during weeknights when there were only a small number of patrons with generally no crowd controller hired.

Ms D’Ath says only licensed security guards will be able to operate the scanning machines. Picture: Mark Calleja

Ms D’Ath said she had heard of concerns from licensees that they would no longer be able to have “the young attractive female standing out the front enticing people in.”

However, prominent club owner Trent Meade from GPO and The Met rubbished the claims, labelled Ms D’Ath “disconnected” and said the argument she alluded to had never once been made by the ­industry.

“The Attorney-General continues to show how disconnected she really is by suggesting that Queensland venues are telling her they want to put an ‘attractive female’ on an ID scanner instead of a crowd controller,” he said.

“We are not sure what world the Attorney-General is living in but what Queensland venues want is the ability for its licensees and approved managers who have gone through all the regulator’s probity measures to be able to scan patron’s IDs into their own venues.”

Putting herself at further odds with the venue owners, Ms D’Ath went on to suggest licensees should foot the bill for their employees to complete courses to make them qualified security guards.

“I get that licensed venues may not want to put on additional staff and that comes at a cost,” she said. “Any one of the existing staff can take a security providers course that takes four to six weeks.”

On average it costs about $750 per person to complete the training..