New liquor laws will force up prices at SA pubs, AHA warns

Proposed new liquor laws in South Australia will force up the price of food, alcohol and entry at pubs around the state, according to the Australian Hotels Association.

AHA SA estimates the proposed reforms would see enormous fee increases of up to 1250 per cent at the state’s 6500 venues.

That includes restaurants and cellar doors.

For its part, the government has pledged to work with the $4.23 billion industry.

However, it has not ruled out price increases.

The big concern for pub owners is that their venues will have charge patrons more or close their doors earlier to cover costs.

The AHA says this will be seen either as blatant “tax grab” or “prohibition by taxation”.

“There will be significant prices increases to door charges, drink prices and food,” Australian Hotels Association SA general manager Ian Horne told the Sunday Mail.

“Many of them will have no choice but to shut early. People will lose shifts – it will undermine the goodwill of the businesses.”

The proposed licensee fees are based on recommendations that the former chief justice Tim Anderson in his broad review of the state’s licensing laws made to the state government.

The Anderson review took into account issues including capacity, location and trading hours.

All this has been the framework for new laws that will be debated in Parliament this week.

Mr Horne accused Mr Anderson of recommending “draconian and huge fee increases based on incorrect assumptions of what constituted a high-risk venue, such as licenced capacity (regardless of patron numbers) and hours of licenced premises, regardless of actual risk of an individual premises’ record of wrongdoing”.

The AHA estimates that the state’s top 35 music venues alone lose $150,000. That money, it says, would go straight into State Government coffers.

“It would be a very brave Government wanting to increases fees so dramatically across 6500 licensees before the March 2018 election,” Mr Horne told the Sunday Mail.

“Their starting point has to come a long way back from what Mr Anderson suggested.”

by Leon Gettler, April 10^th 2017