WA Leader of the Opposition and prospective Premier, Hon. Mark McGowan MLA, talks licence approvals, conditions and objections and his vision for the future of Western Australian hospitality.

We need more common sense when it comes to approvals, conditions and objections to liquor licences. Some of the State Government’s objections are nothing short of ludicrous. One recent example was Brotzeit, a German-themed restaurant chain at the upmarket 140 William complex.

Brotzeit was banned from selling beer in traditional German one litre glasses because, among other reasons, the Executive Director of Public Health was concerned about “the potential for some patrons to consume the one litre stein at a faster rate in order to prevent the beer from going warm and/or flat”. I don’t like drinking flat, warm beer, either, but I can make my own mind up about that.

Even a Muslim majority nation like Malaysia allows its Brotzeit patrons to order a 1L Stein – but not in Western Australia.

Then I heard about Rodney’s, a small Mosman Park bar playing “rare music” for the over-30s. It was told that it would not get a liquor licence until it put up signs banning anyone wearing bikie colours. There is more chance of me playing for the Western Force than a group of bikies deciding to have a night out at a jazz bar in Mosman Park.

But the objection which really concerned me was the proposal by the managers of the State Theatre of Western Australia to vary its licence so people could have a drink at the bar or eat at the restaurants outside of performance times.

The State Theatre is a sophisticated building designed by Kerry Hill – one of the best architects to have come out of this State – and is considered a must see for cultural tourists by Tourism WA.

Yet the variation application was knocked back was because the Police did not feel that the State Theatre was an important venue to the tourism industry and that visitors could create “public disorder or disturbance”.

I feel so sorry for these businesses which spend so much time, effort and money dealing with a liquor licensing system which often just seems programmed to say “no”.

My plan for Western Australia is to create jobs – and I want to make it easier for our hospitality and tourism businesses to do this, not cripple them with red tape.

I constantly hear stories from businesses of how excessive and often unnecessary red tape and interventions by the Health Department and Police are adding significant costs and delays to hospitality businesses.

Any Government I lead will take a common sense approach. We all know that alcohol abuse is a problem in our community but irrelevant interventions in liquor licences will not fix it.

I will make some simple changes to the Liquor Control Act 1988 to reduce red tape for liquor and hospitality businesses and recognise this industry’s important tourism role:

• Give equal legal weight to the representations of tourism bodies in the Act as to the Police and Health Department;
• Add a new category to the public interest assessment which allows for a venue’s tourism, community and cultural benefits to be considered in licence applications; and
• Reduce objections by the Police and Department of Health to liquor licensing applications.

Hon. Mark McGowan MLA
Leader of the Opposition