REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Saturday, May 8, 1982

IT was a cost rise that outraged everyone.

The Australian Hotels Association warned that the cost of a pot of beer would top $1 for the first time if publicans lost a battle with the federal government.

Gold Coast president of the association Joe Kelly was furious the Fraser government planned to increase the beer excise in its upcoming final budget before it lost power to Bob Hawke’s Labor party.

Mr Kelly warned that the result could be disastrous for the Gold Coast’s hospitality industry and feared businesses would be forced to close.

He said there would be staff cuts, wage earning drinkers would not be able to afford a beer and some publicans would be forced out of business entirely.

He said the government “already got a large gulp of every beer sold”.

Meanwhile, the Gold Coast City Council defied its reputation for long and dull meetings by holding its shortest-ever gathering.

The meeting at the Evandale chambers ran for five minutes and 30 seconds. It beat the previous record for the shortest meeting, which was understood to be about seven minutes.

The meeting, chaired by acting mayor Sir John Egerton, sped through the 90-page agenda, said to be one of the shortest ever seen. It was radically different from normal meetings, which degenerated into long and wild slanging matches between aldermen.

The record for shortest council meeting was later claimed in 2010 by Ted Shepherd, who ran a planning committee at just 10 seconds.