Serving the needs of tourists

When the committee charged with making recommendations for changes to liquor licensing laws was established in 2013, the Government set its primary purpose as:

“In considering the interest and needs of the West Australian community, the committee is to have particular regard to:‐

• balancing the requirements of consumers for liquor and related services with minimizing harm or ill‐health caused to people or any group of people, due to the use of liquor;
• the interests and needs of persons selling or supplying liquor; and
• the interests and needs of the tourism industry and other hospitality industries in this state.”

During the consultation period, the peak body for Clubs in WA made formal and verbal submissions urging the committee to consider a number of changes that would help achieve each of those three primary objectives.

With specific regard to Western Australia’s valuable and sometimes maligned tourism industry, we saw a great opportunity for the committee to recommend changes that could help fill an unmet demand for the availability and provision of local hospitality to visitors to the area.

However to our dismay and potentially the great disservice of one of the largest contributors to the State’s economy, the committee’s final report failed to endorse our explicit offer to help cater for the needs of tourists.

The omission of a recommendation to adjust the unnecessarily restrictive laws and allow clubs to provide services and facilities that benefit the tourism industry was particularly disappointing given the committee received comment from both the Tourism Council of WA and the Department of Sport and Recreation in support of our proposed help.

We believe the committee must have overlooked our proposal because any rational observer would agree that the opportunity to open the doors of hundreds of safe and friendly, not for profit hospitality venues to tourists across the State simply doesn’t have a downside.

While within our broader objective of seeking to modernise the liquor licensing laws, this specific proposal is more about a genuine offer to help the tourism industry provide the variety of hospitality options its valuable customers require.

In short:

We want an adjustment to the law that enables clubs to help the Tourism Industry and offer hospitality to Tourists.