Bars reach no accord on forced meetings

Less than a quarter of the city’s pubs, clubs, restaurants and bottle shops are part of a liquor accord, contributing to the irresponsible service of alcohol in our entertainment precincts, City Councillors say.

Data collected recently by the City of Sydney showed that of the approximately 1904 licensed premises in the area, only 450 shared cooperative alliances between venues, police and other community stakeholders.

Doubting the effectiveness of the Government imposed 2am lockouts, Councillor Chris Harris suggested that forcing all alcohol-serving venues to join local accords is the answer.

Mr Harris said that compulsory liquor accords would prompt responsible service of alcohol through peer pressure.

“It’s all adversarial now: We’re forcing everybody to do stuff. It would be much better if we had a cooperative model,” he said.

But Doug Grand, Chairman of the Kings Cross Liquor Accord, said the argument was flawed because most entertainment venues were already accord members.

The Kings Cross Accord lists 55 members, including the (First) Empire Hotel, which was included in the forced 2am lockouts. All Oxford Street venues on the 2am blacklist are part of the Surry Hills Liquor Accord, except for the Taylor Square Hotel

Grand, operator of Club Swans on Darlinghurst Road, said compulsory accords would create a bureaucracy, which would draw unnecessary costs for the State Government.

“Most of the larger venues are part of the accords. The smaller ones that are forced to do that on a compulsory basis probably wouldn’t do that anyway.

“If you’ve got a Thai restaurant that seats 40 people and the licensee can’t speak English, you’re not going to get anything out of being a compulsory member of an accord,” he said.

Surry Hills Liquor Accord Chairman, Craig Bell, applauded the function of accords, but the Stonewall licensee agreed with Grand, saying that making it compulsory to join liquor accords was unnecessary.

“I think there is sufficient support for the voluntary liquor accords. Generally speaking, you’re mad not to be a part of it, from a voluntary position.

“We have no difficulty in our accord attracting people along to the meetings. They’re very well attended.”

Last year community groups from Sydney city, Coogee, Manly, and as far as Newcastle joined forces to form the Community ACCORD, the largest coalition of community groups to lobby against alcohol-related crime and antisocial behaviour.

Standing for the ‘Association of Communities Concerned with encouraging Responsible Alcohol Service and Drinking’, the Community ACCORD originally pushed for a 1am lockout across all Sydney venues in August last year.

Darlinghurst Resident Action Group ‘co-convenor’ and Community ACCORD member, Jo Holder, agreed that mandatory liquor accords would produce needed conversation between venues and residents.