The Hospitality Messenger

REMINDER: Annual licence fees must be paid by 1 January 2019

All licensees should have received their annual licence fee notices from the licensing authority by now.  If you have not received a notice yet, you should follow up with the licensing authority.  Licensees are responsible for paying their annual licence and permit fees on time, before 1 January 2019 (even if no notice is received from the licensing authority).  Failure to pay the annual fees on time may result in fines being issued, suspension or even cancellation of licences or permits.

Trading hours over the festive period

As reported previously in The Hospitality Messenger, the licensing authority has issued a blanket approval for most (but not all) sellers of packaged liquor to trade additional hours on 23 and 30 December 2018.  On these dates:

• Most liquor store licences situated outside the metropolitan area may trade between 10am and 10pm.
• Most hotel and liquor store licences within the metropolitan area may trade between 8am and 10am.

Some restrictions apply to some licensees in some locations so all licensees should double check.

Otherwise, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve/Day trading hours are generally as follows (unless a licence specifically states differently).

Checklist…for festive season trading

For licensees and hospitality operators, the festive period is a celebration of busy trading. 

It is easy to get caught up and forget some of the legal obligations and responsibilities, so we have created the following brief checklist of the key things that tend to be overlooked:

• Juveniles – in most cases they are not allowed on licensed premises, unless properly accompanied by a genuine responsible adult or guardian.
• Incidents – properly record all recordable incidents including the requisite additional details when a crowd controller physically restrains or removes a person, or prevents a person from entering the premises.
• Noise – monitor and manage noise levels and emissions. Record complaints. Dealing with noise complaints can potentially be costly and time consuming.
• Table service - restaurant licences and some ETPs only allow for liquor to be served by the licensee or its staff to patrons who are seated at a table or similar structure used as a table. Patrons should not be allowed to move about in such premises with an alcoholic drink in hand.
• Numbers limit/patron capacity – don’t exceed your limit and know whether the number relates to patrons only or patrons + other people, such as staff.

Read our top 10 checklist blog post from earlier this month here and generally ensure compliance with conditions endorsed on a licence or ETP.

Did you know?

...Crowd controllers must be authorised in writing to remove people from licensed premises. Download the licensing authority’s authorisation form here.

Déjà vu decision by the Liquor Commission

In 2016 the Liquor Commission, by majority, refused Woolworths’ application to convert the Peninsula Tavern bottleshop into a Dan Murphy’s.

In 2017, following an appeal by Woolworths, the Supreme Court ruled that the majority of the Liquor Commission was in error and ordered the matter be re-heard by the Commission.

In April 2018 the Commission re-heard the matter and handed down another majority decision

which again refused the application.  You can access the majority and minority decisions here.

Did you know?

...The Director of Liquor Licensing is conducting a review of special facility “catering” licences.  Holders of such licences have received letters inviting submissions as to why certain conditions should not be endorsed on their licences.