[Greens-Media] Liquor regulator Byron Bay licence refusal holds out new hope for Mt Hutton community

[John Kaye]

Liquor regulator Byron Bay licence refusal holds out new hope for Mt Hutton community
 
Media release: 9 October 2012
 
The Greens have welcomed the decision of the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority to reject an application from Woolworths to locate a Dan Murphy's bottle shop in Byron Bay's main street. The party says the outcome is a shot in the arm for the campaign to stop ALDI opening a liquor outlet in their store next door to Mt Hutton Public School in the Lake Macquarie area.
 
('Fight against Aldi liquor' Newcastle Herald, 9 October 2012, http://j.mp/NH121009) 
 
The party's Hospitality, Gaming and Racing spokesperson John Kaye said he believed the findings established a precedent that all communities could rely on.
 
The Authority's decision can be found at: http://www.ilga.nsw.gov.au/resource/reports/Dan%20Murphys.pdf
 
Woolworth's application for Byron Bay Dan Murphy's licence has been strongly opposed by the Byron Community, who, in common with Mt Hutton residents, feared the impacts of increased violence, under-aged drinking and public drunkenness. 
 
The decision has stopped Woolworths moving a licence into Byron Bay on the grounds that it is likely to increase the existing social problems of alcohol, including under-aged and public drinking, pre-fuelling and high levels of violent crime.
 
Greens NSW MP John Kaye said: "The Authority has at last taken seriously its legal responsibility to minimise the harm associated with the misuse and abuse of alcohol. It is to be hoped that this is not a one-off and that the regulator will apply the same standards across the state.
 
"The campaign to ALDI opening a liquor outlet in its store next door to Mt Hutton Public School has just received a shot in the arm. Almost all of the arguments that caused the Authority to reject Woolworth's Byron Bay application apply equally if not more strongly to ALDI's attempt to sell alcohol at its Mt Hutton store.
 
"The Authority did not allow itself to be distracted by Woolworth's substitution argument that another outlet would not increase sales, just attract customers from other stores. Instead the decision focused on the issues that really concern local communities, including under-aged and public drinking, pre-fuelling and impacts on crime levels.
 
"The Byron Bay outcome is a blow to the liquor chains. Communities like Mt Hutton have too often been the collateral damage in a battle between the retailers for local market dominance. Now the Authority has called time on the proliferation of outlets and the impact they are having on crime levels.
 
"Communities like Mt Hutton that suffer from a high level of alcohol abuse and crime associated with existing bottled alcohol sales can take comfort from this decision. The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority has now recognised that another outlet even in a heavily supplied market can increase harm and should be rejected.
 
"As the retail liquor chains seek to increase their grip on the market, the Authority is at last standing up for communities that do not want yet more under-aged drinking, public intoxication and pre-fuelling that additional outlets cause. 
 
"The decision is a big step the right direction. It will provide some optimism to the Lake Macquarie community that is campaigning against an application from ALDI from a bottle shop next door to Mt Hutton Public School," Dr Kaye said.
 
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455
 
 
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John Kaye
Greens member of the NSW Parliament
phone: (02) 9230 2668
fax: (02) 9230 2586
mobile: 0407 195 455
email: john.kaye at parliament.nsw.gov.au
web: www.johnkaye.org.au
 
mail: Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000