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LIQUOR LICENSING (AUTHORISED
PERSONS) AMENDMENT BILL Adjourned debate on second reading. (Continued from 15 November. Page 1251.) Mrs PENFOLD (Flinders): I rise today to confirm the support of the opposition for this bill. I thank the minister's staff for the detailed briefing they provided to me last week. The industry is supportive of the proposed changes. Indeed, I am told that it brought these issues to the government's attention, and I commend the government for addressing these valid concerns. The primary act is intended to deal with the infiltration of organised crime into the security and hospitality industries, as well as violent and aggressive behaviour by crowd controllers working in licensed premises or at licensed events. Licensed crowd controllers working on licensed premises are now required to be approved by the Liquor and Gambling Commissioner. Section 111 of the act relates to `areas of licensed premises declared out of bounds to minors', and section 112 relates to `minors not to enter or remain in certain licensed premises'. These two sections were not part of the amending package introduced by the Statutes Amendment (Liquor, Gambling and Security Industries) Act 2005 and, as a result, under sections 111 and 112, an agent or employee of the licensee is permitted to use force to remove minors from licensed premises. This is inconsistent with the recent amendments to the act, which restrict the category of persons who may use force to remove or prevent the entry of persons onto licensed premises. In order to provide consistency throughout the act, sections 111 and 112 have been amended to include the requirement that only an authorised person, as defined by the act, may use force to remove minors from the licensed premises. The bill also inserts the definition of `authorised person' into the interpretation section of the act and, therefore, the definition will apply to the act as a whole. These amendments are sensible, and we support the bill to enable the primary act to come into force on 1 February 2007 so amended. Debate continued………. The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Minister for State/Local Government Relations): I would like to thank the opposition and, in part, the shadow spokesperson for her contribution and support—she clearly has a very good understanding of what this legislation is about. For the benefit of the member for Stuart, this is not about increasing red tape for any sporting organisation; this particular piece of legislation is about ensuring that young people are treated in the same way and have the same protections as other people occupying licensed premises. My recollection is that we have dealt with some of the issues the member for Stuart has raised, and the Commissioner for Liquor and Gambling has been able to resolve those for the clubs that have raised the issues; however, I am happy to take a submission from the honourable member so that we can look at that in some detail to see how we can accommodate the concerns of sporting clubs. Bill read a second time and taken through its remaining stages. |
E-mail address:
flinders.portlincoln@parliament.sa.gov.au
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