Page 4106 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
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consideration to these matters and to give consideration to making by-laws, under the Australian National University Act, that will ensure that there is consistency between the regulatory regime at the ANU and the regulatory regime for the rest of the city. I am yet to hear from the Vice-Chancellor but I am confident that he is giving it due consideration. We look forward to following up that issue.
In relation to the University of Canberra, the government can make amendments to the University of Canberra Act to remove the provisions that allow them to make their own by-laws in relation to licensed venues. But again, I will not act unilaterally when it comes to the operation of the university. I have written to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra in similar terms to what I have written to the Vice-Chancellor of the ANU, indicating that I believe there are no grounds for them to continue to make separate by-laws under their act in relation to licensed venues and seeking their views on that. Again, once we receive advice from the university, the government will be in a position to act on those matters. Again, the government are addressing that issue. But we will have respect and regard to the statutory independence of those institutions and the legal framework in which they operate and we will take action in accordance with that.
These are important reforms. Are they going to fundamentally remove all alcohol-related violence from across our city? No, they are not. But they are going to help us. They are going to help the police. They are going to help licensees and they are going to help patrons, all of whom want to try to do the right thing. They are going to do it in a way that, for the first time, brings our laws up to date, creates a modern framework for the management of risk associated with the sale of alcohol in our city, and they are going to be supported by a considerable new investment in police, in regulatory officers and in public education to make sure that we can make our licensed venues a place that all Canberrans can enjoy, that we can maintain a vibrant and active night life and that we have a great diversity of venues for people to visit, to frequent and to enjoy.
One last point I would like to make is that there has been some criticism that this bill is designed to penalise small venues. That is not the case. In fact, if you look at the framework that the government has set out in relation to how we will make the fees determination following the passage of this bill, the fees structure will actually encourage the operation of smaller venues. That is the government’s clearly stated policy intention.
There has been some comparison between this legislation and the legislation that is in place in Victoria. The Victorian legislation is much more punitive than the framework we are putting in place here and has led to unintended consequences around live music venues and around other venues. But we have not mirrored those provisions in our legislation because we have paid attention to the experience of the Victorian government and its reforms and we do not want to see those elements of that experience repeated here.
There are significant differences in how we are approaching this. We will not have the same punitive one-size-fits-all approach that we saw in Victoria. We will be doing risk assessments based on the history, the compliance history, the reports of police activity and so on that relate to each and every individual venue. We will look at
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