Authorities are monitoring the impact of a trial ban on the sale of cask wine in Adelaide’s city centre, which has been introduced to curb alcohol-fuelled violence.
Key points:
- Liquor restrictions are being trialled in Adelaide’s CBD
- The month-long trial includes bans on takeaway cask wines and some restrictions on spirits
- Authorities will this coming week discuss extending the ban
The month-long trial includes a ban on sales of casks of fortified wine, and of all wine in casks of four or five litres, at CBD liquor outlets, including pubs and bottle shops.
Caps on the sales of spirits have also been imposed to limit customers to a 1 litre-bottle — or two, 700-millitre bottles — per day.
The trial began on Good Friday at the behest of the liquor and gambling commissioner, Dini Soulio, who said it was intended to reduce “anti-social behaviour as a result of excessive liquor consumption”.
“The four-week trial was introduced with the support of the state government’s safety and wellbeing taskforce, and is currently being evaluated,” he said in a statement.
“The restrictions — which most bottle shops had already implemented voluntarily — limited the sale of takeaway liquor.”
Similar restrictions are in place in other South Australian locations, such as Port Augusta, Whyalla and Ceduna.
The commissioner will this week meet with senior police and the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) to discuss whether the ban should continue and, potentially, be strengthened.
AHA state president Ian Horne said that, while anti-social behaviour needed to be curbed, a long-term ban would be detrimental to some businesses.
“It’s not something we want to see forever, but the industry is certainty working with the commissioner and police in a cooperative way,” Mr Horne said.
“Something needs to be done as a circuit-breaker for some of the behaviour we are seeing.
“It’s not any one, in particular, group. There’s a cross-section of issues.”
The South Australian Network of Drug and Alcohol Services agreed that the problem was not confined, but “fully” endorsed the trial and suggested it be extended.
“It could probably go further, given that two bottles of spirits is a very large amount of alcohol to consume in an evening. I would be looking to further reduce the amount of alcohol that can be purchased,” executive director Michael White said.
“The more alcohol that’s available, the more harm you will see: more crime, more assaults, more hospital admissions. There is a very strong correlation.”
Government, opposition back trial ban
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the state government was keenly observing the impact of the trial.
“There is always a need for governments to respond to difficult circumstances and, when we see preventable, alcohol-fuelled violence, then I think it’s reasonable to take measured steps to try [to] stop that where we can,” he said.
“Banning the sales of large volumes of fortified wine and cask wine from particular retailers in the city — if that can alleviate the risk of alcohol-fuelled violence, then that’s something we wholeheartedly support.
“People buying large volumes of cask wine for immediate consumption in the city isn’t necessarily a good thing, and we want to see how this trial plays itself out.”
Opposition Leader David Speirs welcomed the move, but said it did not appear to have been publicly communicated until more than a fortnight after it came into effect.
“There’s been a bit of weirdness about how it’s been publicly announced … [but] there is no doubt there’s been a need for some months now,” he said.
“As someone who attends a lot of events in North Terrace in the evening for my work, I see firsthand that things are getting pretty grim.
“I think people are feeling increasingly unsafe, particularly tourists or people unfamiliar with the CBD.”