Well here we are in 2014 and Albury's New Year's Eve was relatively quiet; that is if you accept that a fractured eye socket and an injured security guard is OK. We didn't have the stuff that has been happening in Sydney but is that just luck?
Now we read that Sydney has had brawls in the CBD for the last two nights and at least one of them is associated with the Ivy nightclub in George Street, a venue that is listed as Schedule 1 by the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing with 26 violent assaults in the last 12 months. This is a venue whose owners argue for a points based system to categorise venues according to the level of violence.
So with a straight face they argue that after the venue accumulates 50 points it should be subject to level 1 restrictions. So what do they suggest you get points for? How's this for breathtaking arrogance; 1 point for something like drink spiking and shoving, 2 points for serious assaults such as breaking someone's nose and 3 points for sexual assault, grievous bodily harm and murder. On my maths that means that you can have 5 sexual assaults, 5 murders and 10 serious assaults with broken noses before any restrictions kick in.
We don't have venues listed as Schedule 1 here in Albury but one venue has made it onto Schedule 2 with 12 assaults.
It's time the government got a bit serious here and stopped listening exclusively to the alcohol lobbyists. How about listening to the public and what they are saying.
I would like to hear your views and am happy to take your calls and emails. I don't have the answers but I have read the research and know from the statistics that we have a serious problem, not just here in Albury but all over Australia.
Let me know what you think.
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