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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 11 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 2902 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

To get people home safely this summer the Government is pursuing other options which will focus on taxis and possible revised hiring arrangements. An additional 15 taxi plates were recently auctioned and a further 30 taxi plates are proposed to be auctioned in the next two years, helping to address concerns that there are not enough taxis to supply a service. ACTION will be operating services from Manuka and Civic to the other town centres on New Year's Eve. Further, as groups of people go out on the town, I suggest they consider a "buddy" or "captain" system whereby one person nominates early as being the one who will not drink, who accepts the responsibility of ensuring that those who do drink do not drive and that everyone gets home safely. Drinking and driving does not make sense. While the Government cannot legislate for commonsense, we can make an appeal and issue a warning.

A problem with the consumption of alcohol is that excessive consumption has led to an increase in street crime. Assaults, vandalism, hooliganism, drunkenness and other street crime are almost a nightly occurrence for our police. In summer months, as more and more people hit the streets, the challenge to police grows. What used to be a problem in Civic has certainly spread beyond its boundaries. Recently I received the Manuka by Night report from the Community Safety Committee, which identifies drunkenness and abuse of alcohol as a factor contributing to crime in that area now also. The Chief Minister and I have had the opportunity to see first hand the problems confronting police and liquor licensing inspectors as they attempt to cut down the incidence of alcohol abuse and related criminal activity.

A number of measures will be introduced to combat these problems. Recently I announced some operational changes to the city beat squad to put a greater focus on alcohol-related offences. Six additional police, including two plain-clothes detectives, have joined the beat squad, boosting the number of officers working in that team to 22. A permanent police presence has been established in Manuka on Friday and Saturday nights, while regular patrols have been increased from both Civic and Woden into Manuka during its busiest hours. A team of three beat squad officers has been assigned to liquor-related compliance work on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Their primary task will be to combat alcohol-related violence and under-age drinking and ensure compliance with occupancy loadings. That policing presence has been put into effect already in preparation for the summer months. Those officers will work in a much more coordinated fashion with officers of the Liquor Licensing Branch of the Attorney-General's Department to ensure compliance with liquor laws. The time has come to put those handful of licensees who think they can continue to profit from irresponsible selling of alcohol on notice that their time is up.

I had a very successful meeting with representatives of the AHA recently to talk about the standards of responsible serving of alcohol in the industry. We all agree that most licensees behave with a high degree of responsibility, but unfortunately there are a handful who do not. It is the intention of the Government, through its liquor law enforcement agencies, to come down hard on those few liquor retailers who do not follow the standard the law considers acceptable. The AHA and the Government will work together through their respective channels to pressure those few licensees to lift their game. (Quorum formed) I am a firm believer in the industry being the best source of discipline, but where that fails I want the industry to be aware that this Government will be using every legal means available to us to pull those licensees into line.

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