Loopy lockout laws serving up red tape on tap

WELCOME to nanny state NSW, where pubs now are the one place you are guaranteed never to meet a drunk, says Miranda Devine.

• An officer’s plea for justice to David Morrison
• Shorten: Lone Pine - denying the legacy of our Gallipoli heroes

Our oppressive liquor laws hit peak stupid on Melbourne Cup day last November, when a 61-year old advertising executive recovering from a double knee replacement took his usual table at The Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay.

As he has done every year for the past 20, he had a nice lunch and a flutter on the gee-gees with his wife and friends, and got up to pay the bill.

But as he creaked towards the bar on his new knees, one of several security guards inspecting patrons for signs of potential intoxication informed him he was banned from buying any alcohol.

“It was an absolute insult,” he says. “I was recovering from a double knee replacement and as this procedure effectively turns one’s knees into a pair of door hinges, my transition from sitting to standing can look awkward. But neither I, nor my guests, were rowdy. Nor were we causing any problems but I knew full well to have challenged him would have resulted in us being marched out.”

Humiliated, he paid his bill and vowed never to return to the local watering hole, which had been an enjoyable part of his life for two decades.

Welcome to nanny state NSW, where pubs now are the one place you are guaranteed never to meet a drunk.

Under threat of $50,000 fines and loss of licence, publicans employ enforcers to eject anyone in a jolly mood or who looks a bit unsteady on their feet. It won’t be long before there are breathalysers to enforce a 0.05 blood alcohol limit at the bar.

If drinkers were just left alone to enjoy themselves, as they used to be, peer pressure and savvy bartenders would usually keep them in line and only the most appalling behaviour would result in expulsion or a call to police.

Instead, these days, an unorthodox gait can get you thrown out on your ear.

After an avalanche of criticism from bankrupted bar owners and exasperated fun seekers, the Baird government has instituted a review of the draconian lockout laws in Kings Cross and the CBD, but these are just a symptom of the real problem.

The root of all evil in Sydney is the Orwellian “responsible service of alcohol” (RSA) legislation, which is “harm minimisation” in disguise.

Welcome to nanny state NSW, where pubs now are the one place you are guaranteed never to meet a drunk.

Over more than a decade the “alcohol and other drugs” lobby has demonised alcohol while pushing the decriminalisation of illicit drugs. They exaggerate the societal problems associated with legal alcohol, and thus create a moral equivalence with illegal drugs.

Their success is represented in statistics which show alcohol use is the lowest recorded in 40 years while drug use has escalated alarmingly.

They have persuaded governments to enact ever more restrictive laws with the result that now drugs are cheaper than booze.

In Kings Cross the legislation demands 1.30am lockouts, 3am last drinks and 10pm closing times for bottle shops, along with punitive treatment for venues which host “intoxicated persons”. Everyone who works in a drinking establishment has to be expensively trained and accredited in RSA, which requires they identify “imminent intoxication”, whatever that is, Nostradamus.

Not just the licensee but “staff, club directors, volunteers and other patrons can be prosecuted if they are found supplying liquor to an intoxicated patron”, with fines up to $11,000.

You can hardly blame a bouncer for erring on the safe side.

The Kings Cross lockout was needed to end the epidemic of one-punch fatalities

But it was only necessary to repair the damage of the RSA laws, which had the perverse effect of pushing large numbers of drunk (and/or drugged) young men on to the street, frustrated and angry with nowhere to go. Inevitably the odd punch was thrown, with no bouncer or mates to intervene. Instead of the victim falling on to soft carpet inside a pub, heads hit hard footpaths with fatal consequences.

Two lives ruined.

Nanny state laws caused the one-punch problem and then more nanny state laws were employed to fix them, and so it will go on, ad infinitum.