Venue owners around Queensland had been bracing themselves for weeks as the state’s new late-night lockout laws came into effect last week and it now appears as though their concerns were well founded.
According to a survey by triple j’s Hack, five of the biggest venues in Brisbane’s iconic Fortitude Valley recorded a 20 percent drop in business during the first weekend since the laws came into effect.
The laws, which will eventually ramp up to be the most restrictive in the country, introduced 3am last drinks for bars in the state’s entertainment precincts and 2am everywhere else, amongst other restrictions.
According to Hack, business was already down 17 percent on Friday night compared to the same weekend last year and down 24 percent from the week before. Saturday saw a drop of 19 percent on the same time last year.
“Look, these are very early initial figures, so we can’t read into the too much, but I think it’s showing there’s some definite effects already to patronage in our entertainment precincts,” Nick Braban, the secretary of Our Nightlife Queensland, told Hack.
“Most casual staff saw a two-hour reduction in their hours across Friday and Saturday night, so that’s probably equating to $80 or $90 out of the pocket of some of these people,” he added.
According to Mr Braban, part of the reason for the drop is confusion amongst Brisbane punters who aren’t sure about just how the laws are affecting venues. “They’re less inclined to come out and we’ve got to hope and pray that changes,” said Braban.
Responding to the figures, Queensland’s Attorney General Yvette D’ath said, “We cannot measure the outcomes of these changes over one weekend. The Palaszczuk Government committed to a comprehensive review after two years in July, 2018.”
But the state’s nighttime economy may not have that much time. “We’ve modelled that 6,000 jobs are going to disappear once the full implementation of the lockouts come in, that’s about a $150,000 hit to the economy,” said Braban.
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“Everyone was willing to wear a reduction in trading hours but everyone knows lockouts are a really bad piece of legislation and it’s not going to, in our opinion, reduce violence.”
“What’s hard to quantify is the reduction in cultural output that we’ll see, how many musicians, bands, DJs aren’t going to be able to get gigs,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Scott Hutchinson, co-owner of The Triffid and chairman of Queensland’s largest private construction company, has vowed to invest whatever is necessary in fighting the lockout laws.
“I’ve tried to change things internally the quiet way but you’re not going to,” Hutchinson told The Guardian. “All you can do here is ram through.”
