Western Australia’s much hyped liquor licensing reforms were supposed to inject some Melbournian small-bar culture into the state’s hospitality scene.
Western Australia’s much hyped liquor licensing reforms were supposed to inject some Melbournian small-bar culture into the state’s hospitality scene.
But since the reforms were introduced more than two months ago, there has only been one small bar liquor licence application lodged with the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor.
Liquor licensing lawyers claim the lack of applications is not through lack of interest but a difficulty in gett-ing planning approval from local councils.
Several lawyers spoken to by WA Business News said that, because the new small bar liquor licence was a version of a hotel licence, many councils were rejecting applications or taking a longer than usual amount of time to determine them.
Lawyers say that councils are yet again providing another road-block to the reforms.
The City of Fremantle and the Town of Vincent came under fire earlier in the year when they said they would not provide approval for restaurants to let their patrons consume alcohol in alfresco dining areas without also ordering a meal – something which the liquor reforms were supposed to pave the way for.
“Our advice from the Department of Racing and Gaming is that small bar licences should be treated as a hotel licence,” the City of Fremantle’s Matt Piggott said.
The City of Perth has been outspoken in its support of the new laws.
A spokesman for the city said the process had been slowed because applicants required specific approval for a small bar.
Although the city was satisfied with the current arrangement, he said it may consider amending its policies to better address small bar applications.
The City of Fremantle is the only local government authority to issue planning approval for a small bar licence.
Mr Piggott said the licence application for the Essex Street Organic Wine Bar and Cafe was assessed as a hotel licence.
One lawyer told WA Business News the local town planning schemes needed to be brought up to date to reflect the intent of the new reforms.
“A lot of the council planning schemes refer to outdated laws,”he said.
Lavan Legal chairman of partners Dan Mossenson said he was working on a number of small bar licence applications and was experiencing difficulty with several councils across the metropolitan area.
“There are two solutions,” Mr Mossenson said. “One is to seperate the small bar licence into a different category from the hotel licence. The government would need to legislate to amend the recent reforms, which would be a complicated and slow process,” he said.
“The other solution is for councils to ignore the umbrella description and look at small bars as a discrete type of licence on their own merit.”
Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor spokesman Doug White said the department was not concerned that it had only received one small bar licence application because it took people time to find the right premises, get finance and gain government approvals.
He said the director of liquor licensing was unaware of any occurrences where zoning applications had taken an unduly lengthy period of time.
