NATIONAL
LIQUOR NEWS – May 2006
Closing time by Gordon Broderick
The bar is three deep with patrons jostling for service. At 5:57pm the barman announces “last drinks gentlemen”. He sets off a Pavlovian frenzy. Patrons gulp down their drinks and order two more. Patrons spill out onto the street at 6 o’clock sharp and begin to make their way home. Such was the scene in many pubs across Australia for half a century. Thankfully, by the 1960s governments realised the harm that early closing was causing and the ‘6 o’clock swill’ was relegated to history.
Six o’clock closing was actually introduced in 1916 as a temporary measure designed to support the war effort. Similarly in 1914 the Defence of the Realm Act in the UK restricted the opening hours of pubs to 12noon 2:30pm and 6:30pm-9:30pm, apparently to keep munitions workers sober. These quirky hours lasted in some form into the 1980s.
Trading hours have once again come under the spotlight. For example, the World Health Organisation released a paper in 2005 (Paper A58/18) which listed the top ten ‘world’s best practice’ strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. The third most effective strategy listed (following ‘government monopoly of retail sales’) is ‘restrictions on the hours or days of sale’. DSICA also expects to see the trading hours debate to re-emerge given the release of the National Alcohol Strategy 2006-2009 and the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Strategies to Reduce Harmful Alcohol Consumption.
At a superficial level, restricting trading hours may have some appeal for policy makers. The argument goes that if alcohol it the cause of problems then surely restricting access to alcohol – by restricting trading hours - will reduce those problems.
It has been widely claimed in the popular media that the UK drinking culture has become more ‘boozy’ and ‘yobbish’ in recent years. So what has been the UK Government’s policy response? It extended pub opening hours.
The Licensing Act 2003, which came into effect on 24 November 2005, allowed pubs in England and Wales to apply to the local authority for opening hours of their choice. Around 40 per cent of pubs have applied to vary their licences by either extending their opening by an hour or two or by offering late food and entertainment. And in the spirit of the 24-hour city, more than 1,000 pubs, clubs and supermarkets have been granted 24 hour licences.
The naysayers of course predicted a sort of binging debauched Armageddon. By December 2005 it was clear that these gloomy predictions were not occurring. Across the UK the reports were similar: “ ...contrary to the anticipated visions of drunken debauchery and vomit-splashed streets, Reading’s punters were on their best behaviour”, “Mayhem on the streets was widely predicted when the government first announced its plans to relax liquor licensing laws. But the first night under the new regime passed off without any major incidents in York”, and “The government’s decision to allow pubs and clubs to open longer is easing closing-time problems for police, senior officers said”.
Over the first month of operation of the new regime the government, policy makers, and the police held their breath. The sky hadn’t fallen in after all. A few months went by and statistics were collected. The headlines were now: “Violence down amid pub law change” (BBC News), “Boozy Crime drops in UK” (The Independent), and “Violent crime falls as pubs laws relaxed” (The Telegraph). Home Office figures showed that serious violent crimes had fallen by more than a fifth since the licensing laws were liberalised.
DSICA wishes to point out that it is still too early to determine the long term impacts from the licensing changes, but the early signs are very encouraging.
Governments cannot change a country’s drinking culture overnight by simply passing a few laws. However, poorly framed laws and regulations can exacerbate the worst features of a country’s drinking culture as evidenced by 6 o’clock closing in Australia and the antiquated closing laws in the UK. As stated earlier, DSICA predicts that over the course of 2006 there will be calls to restrict trading hours in Australia. Policy makers would do well to look at the UK experience.
