Cooly bars in ban bid
Push to plug into ID system
COOLANGATTA nightspot bosses want to join the Queensland-wide war on problem patrons – if the State Government will let them.
Compulsory ID scanning starts for the state’s Safe Night Precincts including Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach venues today.
The system is linked to a centralised statewide database red-flagging to security staff any patrons with police or court-ordered bar bans.
Individual venues can also ban people and add them to the database.
But because Coolangatta does not have SNP status it is not linked to the database and its venue bosses fear troublemakers banned from the central Gold Coast will come their way.
Equally, they say those customers banned by Coolangatta bars will be able to head north to the Glitter Strip without triggering alerts.
Coolangatta Liquor Accord spokesman Tony Cannon, representing more than 20 licensees, said most venues in the area’s booming night scene had installed ID scanners.
“However, until we’re connected to other SNPs to the north, patrons banned from Coolangatta can simply move north and vice versa.”
Mr Cannon said venues asked for SNP status from the State Government last year but were told no new SNPs would be added until after Labor reviewed its new liquor laws tackling alcohol-related violence.
“Several years ago, Hotel Komune, Coolangatta Hotel and Rattlesnake installed our own scanners and we have seen a dramatic improvement in patron behaviour,” he said.
Komune events manager Tari Peterson said ID scanning definitely encouraged patrons to “clean up their act” and linking up to the database would make Coolangatta even safer.
Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey said she was backing the SNP push by Coolangatta which had had a big increase in licensed premises since SNPs were first introduced in 2014.