Sorry Queensland, but your nightlight might be about to get torn to shreds.
A new State Government plan will see police breathalysing patrons in bars, with up to $56,000 worth of fines if patrons are found to be too intoxicated.
The Gold Coast Bulletin is reporting that it’s looking like the blood-alcohol limits for drivers will be the basis for blood-alcohol limits in clubs.
“Police consider a (blood-alcohol) reading of 0.15 to be highly intoxicated,” said Attorney General Yvetter D’Arth, although she did say the definition of “high -alcohol content” is tbd. “Allowing police to breathalyse drunken patrons will help them to build cases for prosecution for court.”
It means licensees may have to actually count the number of drinks you’ve had, or else risk paying up. Bartenders have no way of knowing a patron’s Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) before they order a drink, which can be affected by a person’s age, weight, ethnicity, gender, medications, and good eaten that day.
But wait, it gets worse – the plan also proposes bringing in Sydney-style lockout laws, where the 3am lockout moves to 1am, the 5am close time moves to 3am, and all nightlife as you know it ceases to exist.
Sydney’s lockout laws have already forced venue after venue to close, with owners citing lost revenue. They’re pushing everyone to areas outside of the lockout zone, including Newtown, which locals is say is changing for the worse. Transgender woman Stephanie McCarthy, who was recently bashed in a Newtown venue, blamed the lockout laws for increasing violence in the area.
It’s believed that the government plans on implementing these new laws by November.
RIP Brisbane nightlife. We hardly knew ya.
Image: Peter Macdiarmid via Getty Images
