Councillors roast Rouge nightclub

A club owner was questioned about associations with the Nomads bikie club, while the accuracy of a submission from the Police was challenged during debate at Council on Monday night.

Council was considering an application by the Rouge Down Under nightclub in Kings Cross to extend its trading hours.

Despite an extensive staff report recommending approval with several new conditions, hostile councillors grilled club owner Lili Chel and questioned legal opinion about the application. Three councillors had ‘called’ the matter up to the Planning Committee rather than allow staff to determine the outcome.

Cr Irene Doutney asked Ms Chel’s lawyer whether the club was connected to the Nomads bikie gang. Ms Chel came forward from the public gallery to answer, saying her husband, Scott Orrock, had retired from both the club and its presidency. Mr Orrock was acquitted in 2008 over the shooting and kneecapping in 2004 of the Newcastle Nomads’ Sergeant-at-arms, along with Kings Cross identity Sam Ibrahim.

The club had applied for re-establishment of 6am closing, in accord with its licence first granted in 1998. Its hours had recently been cut back to 3am after neglecting to re-apply when a previous Trial Period, imposed in 2005, had lapsed.

According to the club’s legal opinion, the 6am licence means the temporary freeze on new applications legislated by the government for entertainment precincts does not apply. Council’s Legal and Governance Unit supported this opinion.

But anti-alcohol campaigner Andrew Woodhouse challenged this at the meeting, saying trading hours “must not be varied” and that the freeze applied to Council decisions as well as the state-granted licence.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore seized on this and proposed that a decision be delayed until next week’s full Council meeting while further legal opinion was sought. Councillors agreed.

Six objections to the application had been received, citing the licence freeze, the concentration of late-night venues, and noise from patrons and amplified music.

However only one substantiated noise complaint, in 2006, had been recorded about the basement-level club. This had been resolved, and other objections were not specific to the venue.

Kings Cross Police Superintendent Tony Crandell objected with a long submission, listing several incidents including “audience participation in a strip show” and claiming the club was poorly managed.

There were 13 violent incidents detailed over a two-year period, along with lesser breaches such as under-age drinking, people found with ecstasy tablets and a bouncer without a valid RSA certificate, as well as one drink-spiking incident.

In one incident, police allege that a bouncer assaulted police who had arrived in response to a fight involving a glassing.

Ms Chel denies this, alleging that police had in fact assaulted her staff. The drink spiking was unsubstantiated and the club was unaware of any such incident. The club had successfully defended many of the charges in court and was complaining to the NSW Ombudsman about police actions and the submission to Council.

In another incident an under-age girl claimed to police she had been at the club but “that was not the case” according to the club’s submission.

The club had received no intoxication infringements, and was not listed in the state government’s hitlist of violent venues.

“Police Commanders from several areas are objecting to all late-night applications across the board,” said Grant Cusack, the club’s lawyer, “But the Licensing Sergeant was happy with our application.”

Cr John McInerney asked if Mr Cusack “was implying rather gently that there is a division of opinion within the Police”, and whether the Superintendent might have a “wider and more mature opinion than the Licensing Sergeant”.

“Not necessarily,” replied Mr Cusack.

by Michael Gormly