❓ The Minister for Sport and Recreation outlines the government's approach to balancing consumer choice and harm minimisation regarding alcohol abuse, highlighting targeted strategies like prohibition orders and barring notices, while supporting a vibrant hospitality sector.
AnsweredQoN 865Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ALCOHOL ABUSE
There is still some considerable concern about alcohol abuse in the community. Can the minister please update the house about what the government has done to try to achieve a balance between consumer choice and harm minimisation? Mr T.K. WALDRON
There is still some considerable concern about alcohol abuse in the community. Can the minister please update the house about what the government has done to try to achieve a balance between consumer choice and harm minimisation? Mr T.K. WALDRON
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Mount Lawley for his question. He has brought some really interesting issues to me over the last three years and I always appreciate the frank and fair way he goes about that. It has enabled us to make some changes that I think have been fair enough. He mentioned that alcohol is a big issue in our community and mentioned balance in his question, and I often talk about balance. It is the government’s aim, and my aim, to try to allow people to go out and drink socially but responsibly, and at the same time to not feel that they are in danger or threatened. It is about trying to reach that balance; that is what we try to do. I guess one person’s opinion of where that balance is may differ from another person’s, but I think we are getting it fairly right. We have tried to adopt a targeted strategy, probably in a couple of ways, and I will come to the targeting of troublemakers because that is one of the issues. But we are also targeting and supporting choice and diversity within the industry and for consumers, and for employment and new business opportunities. We are trying to ensure that we have a vibrant hospitality sector and we support tourism in the state. I acknowledge that the small bars initiative of the previous government was good and I support it. We have seen a very orderly — Mr E.S. Ripper : Which you didn’t vote for at the time. Mr T.K. WALDRON : No; I did not, and this issue came up before. I had some issues with it at the time and I stated the reasons. If the Leader of the Opposition reads what I said, I said that if proved that my reasons did not come into play, I would change my opinion, and that is what I did. The previous government was right on that initiative and I support it. Ever since I have been the minister and seen the value of that initiative, I have continued to ensure that small bars get rolled out in an orderly way, which I think has been really successful. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition; I am open about this. Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
Mr T.K. WALDRON replied: I thank the member for Mount Lawley for his question. He has brought some really interesting issues to me over the last three years and I always appreciate the frank and fair way he goes about that. It has enabled us to make some changes that I think have been fair enough. He mentioned that alcohol is a big issue in our community and mentioned balance in his question, and I often talk about balance. It is the government’s aim, and my aim, to try to allow people to go out and drink socially but responsibly, and at the same time to not feel that they are in danger or threatened. It is about trying to reach that balance; that is what we try to do. I guess one person’s opinion of where that balance is may differ from another person’s, but I think we are getting it fairly right. We have tried to adopt a targeted strategy, probably in a couple of ways, and I will come to the targeting of troublemakers because that is one of the issues. But we are also targeting and supporting choice and diversity within the industry and for consumers, and for employment and new business opportunities. We are trying to ensure that we have a vibrant hospitality sector and we support tourism in the state. I acknowledge that the small bars initiative of the previous government was good and I support it. We have seen a very orderly — Mr E.S. Ripper : Which you didn’t vote for at the time. Mr T.K. WALDRON : No; I did not, and this issue came up before. I had some issues with it at the time and I stated the reasons. If the Leader of the Opposition reads what I said, I said that if proved that my reasons did not come into play, I would change my opinion, and that is what I did. The previous government was right on that initiative and I support it. Ever since I have been the minister and seen the value of that initiative, I have continued to ensure that small bars get rolled out in an orderly way, which I think has been really successful. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition; I am open about this. Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
I thank the member for Mount Lawley for his question. He has brought some really interesting issues to me over the last three years and I always appreciate the frank and fair way he goes about that. It has enabled us to make some changes that I think have been fair enough. He mentioned that alcohol is a big issue in our community and mentioned balance in his question, and I often talk about balance. It is the government’s aim, and my aim, to try to allow people to go out and drink socially but responsibly, and at the same time to not feel that they are in danger or threatened. It is about trying to reach that balance; that is what we try to do. I guess one person’s opinion of where that balance is may differ from another person’s, but I think we are getting it fairly right. We have tried to adopt a targeted strategy, probably in a couple of ways, and I will come to the targeting of troublemakers because that is one of the issues. But we are also targeting and supporting choice and diversity within the industry and for consumers, and for employment and new business opportunities. We are trying to ensure that we have a vibrant hospitality sector and we support tourism in the state. I acknowledge that the small bars initiative of the previous government was good and I support it. We have seen a very orderly — Mr E.S. Ripper : Which you didn’t vote for at the time. Mr T.K. WALDRON : No; I did not, and this issue came up before. I had some issues with it at the time and I stated the reasons. If the Leader of the Opposition reads what I said, I said that if proved that my reasons did not come into play, I would change my opinion, and that is what I did. The previous government was right on that initiative and I support it. Ever since I have been the minister and seen the value of that initiative, I have continued to ensure that small bars get rolled out in an orderly way, which I think has been really successful. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition; I am open about this. Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
Mr E.S. Ripper : Which you didn’t vote for at the time. Mr T.K. WALDRON : No; I did not, and this issue came up before. I had some issues with it at the time and I stated the reasons. If the Leader of the Opposition reads what I said, I said that if proved that my reasons did not come into play, I would change my opinion, and that is what I did. The previous government was right on that initiative and I support it. Ever since I have been the minister and seen the value of that initiative, I have continued to ensure that small bars get rolled out in an orderly way, which I think has been really successful. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition; I am open about this. Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
Mr T.K. WALDRON : No; I did not, and this issue came up before. I had some issues with it at the time and I stated the reasons. If the Leader of the Opposition reads what I said, I said that if proved that my reasons did not come into play, I would change my opinion, and that is what I did. The previous government was right on that initiative and I support it. Ever since I have been the minister and seen the value of that initiative, I have continued to ensure that small bars get rolled out in an orderly way, which I think has been really successful. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition; I am open about this. Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
Mr T.K. WALDRON replied: I thank the member for Mount Lawley for his question. He has brought some really interesting issues to me over the last three years and I always appreciate the frank and fair way he goes about that. It has enabled us to make some changes that I think have been fair enough. He mentioned that alcohol is a big issue in our community and mentioned balance in his question, and I often talk about balance. It is the government’s aim, and my aim, to try to allow people to go out and drink socially but responsibly, and at the same time to not feel that they are in danger or threatened. It is about trying to reach that balance; that is what we try to do. I guess one person’s opinion of where that balance is may differ from another person’s, but I think we are getting it fairly right. We have tried to adopt a targeted strategy, probably in a couple of ways, and I will come to the targeting of troublemakers because that is one of the issues. But we are also targeting and supporting choice and diversity within the industry and for consumers, and for employment and new business opportunities. We are trying to ensure that we have a vibrant hospitality sector and we support tourism in the state. I acknowledge that the small bars initiative of the previous government was good and I support it. We have seen a very orderly — Mr E.S. Ripper : Which you didn’t vote for at the time. Mr T.K. WALDRON : No; I did not, and this issue came up before. I had some issues with it at the time and I stated the reasons. If the Leader of the Opposition reads what I said, I said that if proved that my reasons did not come into play, I would change my opinion, and that is what I did. The previous government was right on that initiative and I support it. Ever since I have been the minister and seen the value of that initiative, I have continued to ensure that small bars get rolled out in an orderly way, which I think has been really successful. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition; I am open about this. Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
I thank the member for Mount Lawley for his question. He has brought some really interesting issues to me over the last three years and I always appreciate the frank and fair way he goes about that. It has enabled us to make some changes that I think have been fair enough. He mentioned that alcohol is a big issue in our community and mentioned balance in his question, and I often talk about balance. It is the government’s aim, and my aim, to try to allow people to go out and drink socially but responsibly, and at the same time to not feel that they are in danger or threatened. It is about trying to reach that balance; that is what we try to do. I guess one person’s opinion of where that balance is may differ from another person’s, but I think we are getting it fairly right. We have tried to adopt a targeted strategy, probably in a couple of ways, and I will come to the targeting of troublemakers because that is one of the issues. But we are also targeting and supporting choice and diversity within the industry and for consumers, and for employment and new business opportunities. We are trying to ensure that we have a vibrant hospitality sector and we support tourism in the state. I acknowledge that the small bars initiative of the previous government was good and I support it. We have seen a very orderly — Mr E.S. Ripper : Which you didn’t vote for at the time. Mr T.K. WALDRON : No; I did not, and this issue came up before. I had some issues with it at the time and I stated the reasons. If the Leader of the Opposition reads what I said, I said that if proved that my reasons did not come into play, I would change my opinion, and that is what I did. The previous government was right on that initiative and I support it. Ever since I have been the minister and seen the value of that initiative, I have continued to ensure that small bars get rolled out in an orderly way, which I think has been really successful. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition; I am open about this. Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
Mr E.S. Ripper : Which you didn’t vote for at the time. Mr T.K. WALDRON : No; I did not, and this issue came up before. I had some issues with it at the time and I stated the reasons. If the Leader of the Opposition reads what I said, I said that if proved that my reasons did not come into play, I would change my opinion, and that is what I did. The previous government was right on that initiative and I support it. Ever since I have been the minister and seen the value of that initiative, I have continued to ensure that small bars get rolled out in an orderly way, which I think has been really successful. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition; I am open about this. Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
Mr T.K. WALDRON : No; I did not, and this issue came up before. I had some issues with it at the time and I stated the reasons. If the Leader of the Opposition reads what I said, I said that if proved that my reasons did not come into play, I would change my opinion, and that is what I did. The previous government was right on that initiative and I support it. Ever since I have been the minister and seen the value of that initiative, I have continued to ensure that small bars get rolled out in an orderly way, which I think has been really successful. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition; I am open about this. Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
Mr B.J. Grylls : It’s the only mistake you have ever made! Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
Mr T.K. WALDRON : There are 61 approved small bars, of which 54 are actively trading, with a further 10 pending. They are doing well and I think we will see more as we go on. The process is now generally running smoothly; every now and then there might be issue with one or two small bars, but generally things are going well. We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
We have resisted calls to apply blanket alcohol controls because I do not think it is in the best interests of our hospitality sector. I think it could have too big an impact on the vast majority of Western Australians who do drink responsibility, and I think that most members in this place would agree that the vast majority drink responsibly. Therefore, we have tried to focus on the troublemakers. I will not go into the detail, but 101 prohibition orders have been issued since their inception, of which 51 have related to serious glassing incidents. These prohibition orders have played a big role in that area. We also have barring notices by which we give youngsters—not only youngsters, but a lot of the time of they are youngsters—a first warning, if we like, or time on the bench, barring them for a certain time. There were 187 barring notices issued in less than 12 months, of which 93 are currently active. There have been 520 logins to the restricted-access website and we have successfully prosecuted those who disobeyed the barring notices. I just say that the barring notices have been a fantastic success; they are a great tool for the police and licensees and they work very well, remembering that young people who make a mistake do not get a criminal record. I actually think we are doing the right thing by those people as well and probably saving them from getting into further problems down the track. We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
We have the tempered glassware initiative that the member for Collie–Preston has raised with me a few times. We have worked closely with the industry on that and we are getting a strong voluntary take-up. I think I reported earlier that nearly 75 per cent of sales of glasses to licensed premises are now of tempered glass, which is really positive. The other thing we have done is to try to work with industry to get it on the front foot, and I think smart licensees and publicans et cetera out there recognise that they have to take their own initiatives. We have seen that through the Australian Hotels Association, the Business Improvement Group of Northbridge, the WA Nightclub Association and the Australian Liquor Stores Association. Not everyone is perfect, but I think we have had a turnaround because it is in their best interests. The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
The section 175 bans on Indigenous communities have been very successful. There are 15 of those, and I think we probably lacked a bit in providing backup in the early days, but now with the allocation of new officers through the royalties for regions program and the Drug and Alcohol Office, those people are getting out there to work with those communities, which is really important. We have just commenced the alcohol restricted premises program and it has got a lot of support, particularly from people such as June Oscar. The program has just started and three applications are being processed at the moment. We are also strengthening sly grogging provisions. Alcohol will be a challenging area as time goes on for whoever is in this position. We need to take a balanced approach and I think we are actually achieving results, with real results coming through, but we have to keep working at it. There is not one silver bullet; there will be a suite of things that will gradually make the situation better. I say one thing: we quite often hear about the issue of supply, and although that can be an issue in some cases, I have often thought that it is more an issue of demand than of supply. It was very interesting that recently one of the elders at the Warmun community came out and made a statement that supply is not the problem in a lot of the communities; demand is the problem. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger focus on education and on changing attitudes. As sports minister I have plans to far better utilise our great sporting network to help with that education and the change in those attitudes. I have some initiatives that I plan to get going early next year that will help that. Generally, I think we are on the right track, but we have to remain totally focused, because situations change, and we will certainly do that.
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