How last drinks laws cleaned up state’s wild night life

The surgeon behind Queensland’s 3am last-drinks legislation has revealed why he knew the highly contentious laws would work.

The surgeon behind Queensland’s 3am last-drinks legislation has revealed he knew the highly contentious laws would work and a new report released Friday shows his vision to clean up the state’s night-life precincts has been a success.

“You just have to look at Fortitude Valley, it has been transformed from a highly dangerous place to somewhere people can enjoy,” Dr Anthony Lynham, a maxillofacial surgeon and former Palaszczuk government minister, told The Courier-Mail.

His work as a surgeon and his frequent encounters with victims of alcohol-fuelled violence sparked his push for change. In 2016 the government rolled out statewide laws following the tragic one-punch attack on 18-year-old Cole Miller.

The laws stated that no alcohol was to be served past 2am at all venues outside of the 15 Safe Night Precincts in Queensland and the cut-off was 3am within the precincts.

Shots, doubles, premix drinks higher than 5 per cent and unlisted or cut-price cocktails were banned after midnight.

Dr Anthony Lynham. Picture: Shae Beplate.

The study from Deakin University, in collaboration with the University of Queensland, is published in Friday’s Drug and Alcohol Review. Researchers gathered feedback from venue owners, police, ambulance and health workers and found that the changes had mostly been a success.

They found that while some venues reported that their businesses lost money, others reported no change in income or that they changed their business model to compensate.

Law enforcement and health professionals reported a range of benefits including reduced alcohol-related anti-social behaviour, drunkenness and injuries.

Dr Lynham admitted there had been pushback from licensees over the laws but said that the plan had been carefully thought out and was based on the success of similar laws in Los Angeles, Norway and Glasgow.

Bernie Hogan from the Queensland Hotels Association said he would not comment on the new report.

Dr Lynham said: “The plan was evidence based. It was going to work. Unlike lockout laws that had people flock out of venues on to the streets at the same time, the last drinks approach allowed a trickle of people leaving pubs and clubs.”

An earlier release of the Deakin research revealed that ambulance call-outs dropped by 26 per cent in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley and 21 per cent in Surfers Paradise after the laws were enacted.

“It’s great to see further evidence that our measures to reduce alcohol-fuelled violence are working,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

“An independent evaluation of these measures released earlier this year showed the number of serious assaults that occur in the critical early morning period from 3am to 6am have almost halved.”