Lessons from Queensland's last-drinks legislation: The use of extended trading permits

No Thumbnail Available
File version
Author(s)
Zahnow, Renee
Miller, Peter
Coomber, Kerri
de Andrade, Dominique
Ferris, Jason
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2018
Size
File type(s)
Location
License
Abstract

Introduction and Aims: The association between alcohol availability, alcohol consumption and, in turn, alcohol‐related harms is well established. Policies to reduce alcohol‐related harms focus on limiting accessibility through the regulation of the liquor industry, including trading hours. On 1 July 2016, the Queensland Government introduced legislation to reduce ordinary liquor trading hours, replacing 5 am closing times with 3 am cessation of liquor sales in designated entertainment precincts and 2 am cessation of sales across the rest of the state. However, the amendment was under‐inclusive and did not apply to temporary extended trading permits, a provision of the Liquor Act 1992 allowing one‐off variations in trading hours for special events.

Design and Methods: We use 24 months of data (1 January 2015 to 31 December 2016) from the Office of Liquor Gaming and Regulation to explore patterns of extended trading permit use across Queensland, pre‐ and post‐ 1 July 2016.

Results: We find that following the Amendment in 2016 there was also a distinct shift in the utilisation of temporary extended trading permits, with a 63% increase in approved permits between 2015 and 2016. Temporal clustering around key calendar events dissipated following 1 July 2016 with consistent concentration of permit utilisation over consecutive weeks.

Discussion and Conclusions: Using temporary extended trading permits venue owners avoided earlier closing times and continued to operate until 5 am. The findings provide lessons for future policy implementation by illustrating the capacity for under‐inclusive legislation to result in the dilution of intended effects.

Journal Title

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

37

Issue

4

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement
Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Biomedical and clinical sciences

Human society

Psychology

Persistent link to this record
Citation
Collections