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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 198 ..

Mr Osborne: He said that.

MR HUMPHRIES: In that case it must be true. That may indicate some reticence on his part; I do not know. I think it is most important that this Assembly continue as it has begun by sending a clear message to the hotel sector in this community, and, indeed, all those who sell alcohol, including the clubs industry in Canberra, that the standards that we impose in our liquor legislation are not like some traffic rules in this Territory, more honoured in the breach, but are viewed by the community and the Assembly, through the community as well, as rules that are there to be respected and honoured in all cases, or in all cases but with very few exceptions where breaches are unavoidable or are the result of some breakdown in the system of enforcement.

The provisions, for example, about serving intoxicated people are not meant to be there as a sort of dead letter or some sort of ancient piece of legislation which is no longer observed. It is there, and it is meant to be there, to prevent people from becoming heavily intoxicated and inflicting all sorts of other problems on the rest of the community. The provisions about overloading premises are not there as a kind of formality. They are there to be observed and to be obeyed. I would say that much of the same onus falls on licensees because of the obligations they have voluntarily undertaken with the codes of practice. Those codes were prepared and signed while Mr Connolly was Attorney-General and Minister for Police. The industry as a whole embraced the codes of the time, and I believe that at least all licensees in Civic were signatories to those codes; so it is distressing to see some of those very same licensees, or at least one of them, being in breach of the terms of that code.

Mr Moore explained that he felt that it was acceptable to offer one or two drinks to patrons at a very cheap rate - 10c a drink. I gather that was the defence that this particular licensee put forward when he was challenged about why he was offering 10c drinks. Let me say that, from a legal point of view, there was no indication in the advertisements, the fliers that were distributed by this particular licensee. To be frank, I have to say as Attorney-General that legally, if a customer rolled up - - -

Mr Moore: Was this at the university or the Private Bin?

MR HUMPHRIES: Like Mr Osborne, I would not wish to comment, but let me say that I have in private been quite concerned about this matter in recent days. Mr Speaker, I think the particular licensee concerned does not have a legal right to refuse customers who come in and say, "I want 25 10c drinks". As long as they are not intoxicated as they consume them, they can probably obtain them.

I think it is time we sent a clear message to licensees that the codes are there and are meant to be enforced. If the codes are not going to be enforced, then their effectiveness should be reconsidered, and obviously an alternative to a code is legislation. Therefore, I look forward with interest to the standing committee's inquiry. If the result of the inquiry is that further stronger action should be taken, let me indicate from the Government's point of view that we would be willing to consider that.

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