The Western Australia government plans to cap the sale of alcohol in the far north towns of Broome and Derby over concerns about alcohol-fuelled violence.
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00:00 This is the subject of a long-running inquiry by the Director of Liquor Licensing here in
00:06 Western Australia in response to years of alcohol-fuelled violence, domestic violence
00:11 and soaring suicide rates.
00:13 Essentially, the Director of Liquor Licensing announced yesterday a show-cause notice to
00:17 a number of licensees in Broome and Derby to ask them to show her why they should not
00:22 have their ability to sell alcohol further restricted than what it is currently.
00:27 So there are a number of restrictions currently in place in Broome and Derby about the sale
00:31 of alcohol, but she is planning to beef those up if the proposal is accepted.
00:37 So talk us through the restrictions that are being put in place.
00:41 No problem.
00:42 So around 30 licensees will be given until the 23rd of February to make their case about
00:48 whether they should be subject to these restrictions, and those include in Broome in particular,
00:54 we will be opening - bottle shops will only be allowed to be opened between midday and
00:58 7pm.
00:59 In Derby it's a little bit tougher.
01:01 They're looking to restrict the opening hours of bottle shops in Derby between - sorry,
01:05 on Mondays and Sundays, so actually stop them from opening altogether.
01:09 Purchase limits, so if you want to get a bottle - a carton of mid-strength or two bottles
01:14 of wine or a bottle of spirits.
01:16 So they're really cracking down on how much you can buy, as well as slowly phasing out
01:20 the ability of licensees to sell glass, which has been used in a number of alcohol-fuelled
01:24 assaults as a weapon of choice.
01:26 So they're looking to turn to other packaging methods and slowly introduce those to Broome
01:31 licensees and Derby licensees.
01:34 And how's the community reacted so far, Hannah?
01:38 As you can imagine, it is a mixed reaction here.
01:40 A number of locals do understand the need for further restrictions.
01:43 It's very easy to walk around places like Broome and see where alcohol is an intense
01:48 issue.
01:49 But there has also been the pushback from industry, saying, "We haven't given systems
01:54 like TAMS, which is the Takeaway Alcohol Management System, and the Banned Drinkers Register chance
01:59 to really do what they can do."
02:01 They were implemented really recently, and they have only just been in operation functionally
02:05 maybe for about a month or so.
02:07 So they're saying we really should be waiting for the outcome of those before we consider
02:10 imposing further restrictions, but they'll be making those submissions to the Director
02:14 of Liquor Licensing before February 23rd.
02:16 [BLANK_AUDIO]