In the lead‐up to Sydney Mardi Gras celebrations, Surry Hills Liquor Accord has launched an education campaign to inform locals and visitors to the Oxford Street entertainment precinct about relevant NSW liquor laws.
The NSW Liquor Act stipulates that persons who are intoxicated, violent, quarrelsome, or disorderly will be refused admission to licensed venues or directed to leave.
Other grounds which lead to eviction from licensed premises are smoking inside or using or possessing prohibited drugs.
Under the law, patrons who are refused admission or instructed to leave by venue staff, are not permitted to remain within 50 metres of the premises. Failure to comply with these directions is an offence and subject to a $550 on‐the‐spot infringement notice.
Coordinator of the Surry Hills Liquor Accord, David Cass, explained that the relevant liquor law applied at all licensed venues in NSW, including clubs, hotels, bars, nightclubs and restaurants.
Cass said the campaign had been developed with the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming & Racing, senior NSW Police Force officers and the Sydney City Council.
“The liquor laws in NSW are based on a zero‐tolerance approach when it comes to intoxication and unacceptable behaviour on licensed premises”, he said.
“The purpose of the campaign is to remind patrons and inform visitors who might not be aware of local law, that there is no scope for management, staff or security personnel at licensed premises to be lenient”.
Police superintendent Anthony Crandell and senior officers from the Alcohol Licensing Enforcement Command addressed a meeting of representatives from local licensed premises at the NSW Police Centre Auditorium this week and laid‐down what was expected of them during the busy Mardi Gras
weekend.
Some eighty licensees and venue managers at the meeting were also reminded that Oxford and Flinders Streets in Darlinghurst were prescribed Alcohol‐free Zones — where police had the power to ‘tip‐out’ alcohol being consumed on those streets — and that this would be enforced during the Mardi Gras parade.
