WHEN RON BACKED THE BARS
It’s back to the future with planned earlier closing and lockouts for pubs and clubs, says one opposed ex-Gold Coast City councillor
SUSIE Douglas clearly remembers her election to a seat at the Gold Coast City Council table back in 2004. It was when the late great Ron Clarke, who passed away last week, won his first mayoral term, ousting incumbent Gary Baildon.
Susie, who plans to run for council again next year, recalls a major factor in her and Ron’s wins was a vigorous campaign against opponents by hospitality staff.
As the Gold Coast Bulletin noted soon after the 2004 result, licensees were angry with Cr Baildon and Cr Max Christmas for backing a new 3am lockout — a decision made by the Liquor Licensing Division with support from council and the police.
The licensees got busy with newspaper ads and a text messaging campaign encouraging younger voters to make their displeasure known at the polling booth.
Susie says she and Ron were both against the lockout plans: “The talk was we both won because of the local campaign at the time against it.
“It probably did help me a lot,” Susie recalls. “I got enough votes to come through which was good because the field in my division was against seven or nine others.”
Susie says she was as opposed to lockouts then as she is to looming changes now, with State Government plans to bring the existing 3am lockout forward to 1am.
It’s one of a raft of stiff new measures aimed at tackling “alcohol-related violence” and includes moving closing time from 5am to 3am plus bans on high alcohol-content drinks after midnight.
Susie says even though Ron didn’t drink — he was teetotal — he was also very forward thinking when it come to liquor licensing and “for an older guy he was very tolerant”.
“He wanted to take it even further — he thought clubs should be open 24 hours and that they should serve breakfast to patrons on their way out. Ron was very much into trusting people.”
Indeed he was — a Bulletin article from 2004 records him favouring 7am closing.
“No alcohol would be served after 5am, and in that two-hour period the patrons would be given breakfast,” he said at the time.
As far as Ron saw it, bringing in early closing as planned for some bars and 3am lockouts for the rest meant “trying to tell charged-up people they can’t come into clubs – that’s a recipe for violence”.
Susie: “The clubs had spoken to us back then about all of the problems a lockout would create – and it did and they were right.
“There is a safety issue when people are locked out and with early closing when people converge on the streets all at once.
“With a 5am closure and no lockout, people leave and go home as they get tired and it’s a more gradual leaving process whereas with a lockout it’s all over and everyone is out at once.”
It wasn’t just a case of her and Ron believing what the licensees were telling them back then either Susie says, adding: “My kids were at that age of clubbing. When the kids went into Surfers Paradise, my husband and I always had it arranged so the kids could call us if they wanted us to come and pick them up.
“So I knew what was going on in Surfers – and the lockout was not safe, especially for girls.”
Susie says once the lockout kicked in, someone from a group of friends could easily get left outside for whatever reason and left on their own.
“All these types of issues happen with lockout but the police liked it and the Government wanted it and they brought it in.”
Now, 11 years on from that election, she again plans running for the council’s Surfers Paradise seat — and flying the flag for a more liberal liquor licensing regimen.
She calls the looming state crackdown “just wrong”.
“We have to attract the young backpackers and tourists and we’ve got to have something that appeals to them otherwise they will just bypass the Gold Coast.
“The clubs and businesses are suffering enough as it is and a 1am lockout won’t help. Plus it just becomes a nanny state.”