Changes to night rules

Late-night precinct amendments welcomed by bar industry

CHANGES to Queensland’s ID scanner laws have been welcomed by beverage industry representatives in Toowoomba.

The changes will see bars and nightclubs in the Toowoomba Safe Night Precinct, which takes in most of the Toowoomba CBD, able to allow patrons in from Monday to Thursday night without having to scan their ID. Venues will still be required to scan IDs after 10pm on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and on public holidays.

Patrons will also be able to re-enter the venue on the same night without having to get their ID scanned a second time.

Toowoomba Safe Night Precinct president and Fitzys owner Brad Fitzgibbon said from an industry point of view the changes were welcomed.

“The initial implementation of scanning was a massive impost on business in the city, purely due to the increase in labour it took to scan on nights where income was relatively low,” he said.

“The other item that will be good for party goers will be the fact that persons who have already scanned into a particular venue after 10pm on Friday and Saturday night can obtain a stamp upon leaving and don’t have to get scanned again.

“That certainly takes some pressure off those patrons having to line up and the lines associated with it.”

Toowoomba also had the second highest drop in alcoholfuelled violence since the introduction of the ID scanning laws, behind the Fortitude Valley Safe Night Precinct.

“Venues in safe night precincts won’t tolerate poor behaviour,” Mr Fitzgibbon said. “We want people to come out and enjoy themselves, have a good time and get home safely.”

Community clubs would also be exempt from ID scanning laws.

This would mean the Toowoomba Sports Club on Ruthven St would no longer have to scan patrons IDs.

“That’s a big win for them,” Mr Fitzgibbon said. “I think it’s definitely been a positive move forward and certainly the pubs and clubs feel they have been listened to.”