The Hospitality Messenger

Proposed new laws – update

The Liquor Control Amendment Bill 2018 is yet to progress into legislation. Meetings with relevant stakeholders are being held to consider key aspects to the Bill and also the associated regulations and policies. It is unknown if/when the Bill is likely to pass into law and what change to it if any may yet be made.

Director’s Policies

With a view to assisting licensees meet their regulatory obligations the Director of Liquor Licensing has issued over 50 policy guidelines that provide information regarding a diverse range of issues.

The Director makes it clear that the guidelines are not legal opinions or professional advice and the onus is on the individual to assess the relevance and apply the contents of the policies.

Although the policies do not have the force of law like the provisions of the Liquor Control Act and regulations do, licensees will need to establish that special circumstances warrant disobeying a policy if ever challenged.

The policies are amended from time to time.

Disclosure obligations

There are many situations which need to be disclosed to the Director of Liquor Licensing. For example:

• The Director must be informed within 14 days of a conviction committed by a licensee, person in position of authority or an approved manager.
• Changes of ownership of licensed premises and of the addresses of owners.
• Changes in shareholders and their shareholding.
• Changes in directors of licensee companies.

Liquor Commission refuses Sunday ETP for Wonthella IGA/Cellarbrations

Key findings of the Commission include the following:

• “there is no specific material presented that the particular range and diversity of products provided at the Premises (including the specific local
  products referred to in the PIA) or in-store tastings are not available at other liquor stores in the area”
• the fact that the IGA Supermarket has demonstrated high operational capabilities is of limited probative value when considering the public
  interest of Sunday trading of the liquor store Premises”

The Commission also said that, “although convenience of consumers may be a relevant factor in determining consumer requirements, it alone is not
enough to outweigh the established legislative intent that, except in exceptional circumstances, Sunday trading is not permitted outside of the
metropolitan area.

Access the full decision here.

Did you know....

Most liquor licences continue in force indefinitely, unless surrendered or cancelled. But most extended trading permits have an expiry date.

Although the dictionary definition of “wine” means “an alcoholic drink produced by the fermenting of grapes with water and sugar”, under liquor licensing law, “wine” is defined to be much more than that, such that it includes mead, cider, cyser or perry as well as liquor obtained from alcoholic fermentation of fruit, vegetables, berries or honey.

It is an offence to conduct a non-liquor business on licensed premises, such as a TAB, without prior approval of the licensing authority.

For the purpose of liquor licensing law a person occupies a positon of authority in a body corporate if that person is one of the following:

1. A director of the body corporate.
2. Someone who exercises or exerts, or is in a position to exercise or exert, control or substantial influence over the body corporate in the conduct of its affairs.
3. Someone who manages the business of the body corporate to be conducted under a licence.
4. Someone who occupies a position, in relation to the body corporate, which is prescribed to be a position of authority.
5. A shareholder (in the case of the body corporate being a proprietary company).

Reminder

From 1 July 2018 all crowd controllers working on licensed premises will be required to undertake responsible service of alcohol training.

Quirky Fact 

Although ALDI has been granted 18 liquor store licences in WA, the combined display/browse and sale area of them all is only approximately 400m2 in total.

Brag Box

Dan Mossenson and Jessica Patterson have again been named in the Best Lawyers in Australia, 2019 Edition. The list is available here.