A group of Perth’s young professionals felt so strongly about proposals made in a review of the State’s Liquor Licensing Act, they decided to have their say by making a submission signed by 87 endorsees from around the city.
A group of Perth’s young professionals felt so strongly about proposals made in a review of the State’s Liquor Licensing Act, they decided to have their say by making a submission signed by 87 endorsees from around the city.
But Anne Goodall, Tim Macknay and Hannah Fitzhardinge were not the only ones who felt compelled to take part in the public comment part of the review, with about 3000 submissions using an Australian Hotels Association template and 420 other submissions being made.
The 10-month review, which was released for public comment in July (and closed on August 26), was commissioned by the State Government and headed by former Home Building Society chief executive Jim Freemantle.
Ms Goodall, a community development practioner, Mr Macknay, a lawyer, and Ms Fitzhardinge, a public affairs professional, said they wrote the submission after a discussion with a group of friends who felt strongly about the issue. Rather than just talk about the review’s proposals, they decided to do something about them.
“The three of us sent our submission to a few friends on the morning of the day that submissions were due. By lunchtime it had snowballed and was going around the city by mass email,” Ms Fitzhardinge said.
The group wrote it “broadly” endorsed the recommendations, including that liquor stores be allowed to open on Sundays and licensed restaurants be allowed to serve alcohol without meals.
But of primary importance was the issue of liquor licensing. The submission detailed how a steady stream of the group’s friends, colleagues and acquaintances had left Perth and a significant contributing factor was because of the lack of social and cultural activities on offer to them here.
“We wrote a four-page submission focusing on the issue of the reforms that we feel would enable Perth to become more “Melbourne-like” in relation to licensing,” Ms Fitzhardinge said.
“We really love Perth and believe it has huge cultural potential, with vibrant creative people and aesthetic appeal. We believe law reform would set the right conditions for this potential to be realised,” Ms Fitzhardinge said.
“A key element in Perth’s development should be an increase in the diversity of licensed venues and greater innovation in the type and style of these licensed venues,” the submission read.
Melbourne and its “small bar” scene were endorsed several times in the group’s submission and was used as a comparison to show what Perth, in their opinion, lacked.
Their submission also said young people who had returned to Perth from Melbourne were “enamoured” with the bars that line the city’s streets, creating intimate and diverse settings for adults to gather, converse and perhaps watch performances.
Ms Fitzhardinge said the Hudson Bar (combined bar and art gallery), which used to be on King Street in Perth and was forced to close earlier this year after a single complaint regarding noise, had influenced the group’s thinking and galvanised support for law reform among their friends.
Other areas the young professionals’ submission touched on was replacing the public needs test, which is used when the Liquor Licensing Authority determines whether an application for a licence should be granted, with a public interest test; and that three unrelated complainants rather than the committee’s recommended one be required before the complaints procedure can start.
Racing and Gaming Minister Mark McGowan said he expected to present a bill with changes to the act at the autumn 2006 session of Parliament.
