By James Atkinson
The Australian Hotels Association (WA) has welcomed parts of the Western Australian Government’s response to the review of the Liquor Control Act, while also raising some concerns.
AHA (WA) CEO Bradley Woods said the Government had acknowledged that the hospitality industry needed to be unshackled from red tape as well as addressing long-term consumer expectations to allow midnight Sunday closure for hotels, taverns and small bars.
“The Government has made some sensible decisions on retaining the definition of drunk within the Act, introducing fines for the use of fake identification and rejecting the public health lobby calls for using children in entrapment operations,” he said.
“Country hotels and taverns in major regional centres will be concerned by a proposal to consider allowing supermarket liquor stores to trade on Sundays.
“Small businesses do not have the capacity to compete with major supermarket liquor stores and oftentimes hotel bottle shops keep accommodation and food and beverage services viable.
“The AHA is disappointed that some of its proposals for more public behaviour penalties have not been adopted,” said Woods.