As prescribed in the Legislation, these laws will be independently reviewed in July 2018, two years after commencement. The Legislation also removes the link between licensed gaming hours and alcohol consumption hours, however makes no change to the current restriction on gaming before 10 am. The only change to the original Bill is that the 1 am lockout imposed on all venues within a 3 am Safe Night Precinct will now come into effect from 1 February 2017, providing these venues with time to transition to their appropriate operating model. This means that from 1 July 2016, licensed venues that are not within a 3 am Safe Night Precinct will call last drinks at 2 am and licensed venues that are within a 3 am Safe Night Precinct, must call for last drinks at 3 am. However, in light of overwhelming public outcry against the most recent senseless death of Cole Miller in Brisbane as a result of a ‘coward punch’, political sentiment swayed and in the early hours of 18 February 2016 the Government struck a last minute deal with Katter’s Australian Party to gain support, and the Legislation was passed by the Queensland Parliament. As a consequence, the general industry consensus was that the legislative changes would not be passed by Parliament.

When the Legislation was first introduced, it received substantial opposition from the hotel and nightclub sectors and the minority Government was unsuccessful in obtaining bipartisan support for the Legislation and the backing of the 3 independent members of Parliament. Notably, the Legislation sought to reduce allowable extended trading hours for most licensed premises in Queensland, amend the existing lockout provisions under the Liquor Act 1992 (Qld) (the Liquor Act) and introduce the concept of “3 am safe night precincts” ( 3 am Safe Night Precincts).

In order to address the issue, the Attorney – General and Minister for Justice and Minister for Training and Skills, Yvette D’Ath introduced the Tackling Alcohol-Fuelled Violence Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 (the Legislation) into Parliament in November 2015 as part of an election commitment made by the Palaszczuk Government to address the damage caused to society by alcohol –fuelled violence in Queensland. Legislation passed to tackle alcohol - fuelled violence in QueenslandĪlcohol-fuelled violence has consistently been a hot topic in Australian media in recent times and one which the Queensland Government has indicated it wishes to confront.

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