Bills
Liquor Control Amendment Bill 2025
Committee of the whole
Resumed from an earlier stage of the sitting. The Deputy Chair of Committees (Hon Andrew O'Donnell) in the chair; Hon Matthew Swinbourn (Minister for the Environment) in charge of the bill.
Clause 1: Short title
Committee was interrupted after the clause had been partly considered.
Hon Julie Freeman: When we left off, I had asked a question about the decision-making process to apply the banned drinkers register to a new area. The response I got was that it could be triggered by the health department, the local government or the police. It could even be triggered by Hon Neil Thomson raising repeated complaints in this place about the situation in a particular community. Given that it could be triggered in the first instance by one or more groups, how is the community notified and engaged with to establish that it wants to become a banned drinkers area?
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: The member used the word "triggered", which is not the word I used when I described the process to her. There is not a triggering event; there is not a thing as such. It would happen if there were a level of reporting and awareness. Those sorts of issues would be raised and it would become apparent, like with many other things, that there was a need for action. If a BDA is contemplated or proposed, consultation would happen with affected licensees in that area. Local governments in that area would also be notified and consulted. We think that community groups with an interest in the matter would also be consulted. There would also be a notification published in local media and people could make submissions about their views on whether an area should be declared.
Hon Julie Freeman: What follow-up consultation is then done after some time to establish that the community wants to remain a banned drinkers area?
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: We have to understand that when a BDA is put in place and imposed on a particular area or community, it is not the consultation that gives rise to that; it is the fact that there are unacceptably high levels of alcohol-related harms with violence, hospital admissions and those sorts of things. The department continues to monitor those statistics throughout the period in which the banned drinkers area has been declared and is in place. If, in time, we see those levels returning to what would be the community norm, consideration would be given to removing the banned drinkers area from that location. Representations may be made to the minister and the department about whether a particular area should appropriately be within a BDA.
Hon Neil Thomson interjected.
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: Member, I am giving an answer. Can I give the answer, please? I am trying to deal with the honourable member's question faithfully. If those representations were made by a particular community, that would continue. That may precipitate looking further at the statistics to see whether there is justification for it, but the department does not go around and consult with the community in a proactive way to say, "Are you still comfortable with it?" It is the connection between the alcohol-related harm statistics and whether they start to come back towards the mean rather than sitting outside that. All the areas in which we currently have BDAs still sit above the metropolitan average for alcohol-related harms, even though they have come down.
Hon Julie Freeman: The minister answered my next question. Following on from that and referring to the average alcohol-related crime statistics, is it feasible that a metropolitan area like Perth hills or Armadale, for example, could become a banned drinkers area and, if not, why not?
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: I would not use the word "feasible", because that probably is not a legal standard. Is it legally possible under the scheme? Yes, it is legally possible that a particular metropolitan area could be declared a banned drinkers area.
Hon Neil Thomson: That is interesting. We have the protected entertainment precincts (PEP) scheme that also operates. That is about banning people from areas, as opposed to banning drinkers. Maybe there is a case for a banned drinkers area to be applied in Northbridge, for example.
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: Are you proposing that, member, and is your political party supporting that?
Hon Neil Thomson: It certainly would be very equitable, given its application more widely.
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: I am asking if you are speaking on behalf of your party to say that you are proposing a banned drinkers area in Northbridge.
Hon Neil Thomson: No, I am talking about the legality. I am just asking a legal question in the case that we are interrogating.
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: I have conceded that it is possible to have that over some part of the metropolitan area.
Hon Neil Thomson: How many banned drinkers areas do we have in the state?
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: There are four, member—the Kimberley, the Pilbara, the Goldfields and the towns of Carnarvon and Gascoyne Junction, which is a single area because they are declared together.
Hon Neil Thomson: The minister mentioned earlier that this is not about alcohol restrictions; we are referring to the banned drinkers register in this legislation. Is there any link between the restriction on volumetric sales—liquid door sales—and the banned drinkers area?
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: I think when the member is talking about volumetric sales, he is talking about alcohol restrictions in terms of—
Hon Neil Thomson: The number of bottles of wine.
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: That is right, and not the litres.
Hon Neil Thomson: Not the litres or millilitres or whatever.
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: As members know, I am not a drinker, so I have to have these things explained to me. Although alcohol restrictions and a BDR can operate in the same area, one is not a precursor to the other. They are both trying to deal with alcohol-related harms, so there is obviously significant overlap when we have BDAs and alcohol restrictions because of alcohol-related harms in some communities. We can have one without the other, but, as I said, there is obviously a correlation—the alcohol-related harms link.
Hon Neil Thomson: In fact, all BDAs have different alcohol restrictions. Is that not correct?
Hon Matthew Swinbourn: There is some nuance to this answer. As I indicated in my earlier answer, although there is a strong correlation and connection between alcohol restrictions and the BDR, they can be mutually exclusive. Most areas that are a BDA also have restrictions, but alcohol restrictions are usually based on townships rather than regional areas. If we take the Goldfields, for example, not every township could be subjected to alcohol restrictions, whereas the BDA applies to the whole area of the Goldfields.
Progress reported and leave granted to sit again, on motion by Hon Matthew Swinbourn (Minister for the Environment).
