Venues group accuses SA Govt of altering lockout review

Image: Stag Hotel, Adelaide

South Australia’s Late Night Venues Association (LNVA) has accused the Government and police of changing figures to make out that Adelaide’s 3:00am lockout laws were more effective in cutting down alcohol-fuelled assaults than they really were.

The LNVA obtained a draft review of the code through Freedom of Information. According to its President, Tim Swaine, the 2015 draft had maintained the new code had not resulted in a “strong decrease in late night alcohol-related offending behaviour".

He claims that Government and police changed the wording.

"In the end the report was, in our view, drafted in such a way to give an impression that in fact the lockout had been effective," according to Swaine on ABC Radio.

"The trend before the lockout was introduced was that there was a decline in crime in the Adelaide CBD area and the lockout is actually irrelevant to that general trend."

An email dated April 29 2015, after a meeting between Government and police representatives, expressed the language of the review be changed “to give greater emphasis to the fact that there have been declines in incidents and apprehensions, whatever the causes” and that the “report does not say that the code had little effect.”

In 2015, the review reported a "statistically significant decline", attributed a "positive impact" to the code but acknowledged other factors would make it difficult to determine the extent of its impact.

The Government claimed restricted trading hours had slashed assault rates of up to 25%. That year, it introduced a ban on free alcohol after midnight but rejected a police push to close late night venues by 2:00am.

In reporting responses to the LNVA claims, the Adelaide Advertiser quoted Opposition police spokesman Stephan Knoll as saying he would be “very concerned” if review findings had been “interfered with in any way.”

Consumer and Business Services Minister John Rau argued that the Government accepted “the clear advice of SA Police and SA Health” and that the Late Night Code had “helped improve public safety.”

In the meantime, the South Australian Attorney General has announced that with public consultation over the last month, the SA Government will officially unveil its response to the 129 recommendations made in the Tim Anderson Review of the state’s liquor licensing laws.

These included late night venues taking a break in trading between 3:00am and 8:00am, cutting red tape, and encouraging alcohol-free late night entertainment.