Melbourne Lockout a Failure: Alcohol Taskforce Member

By Annette Shailer

A trial 2:00am lockout for licensed premises in Melbourne has failed, according to a member of the Victorian Government’s Alcohol and Public Safety taskforce.

Melbourne’s The Age revealed today Premier John Brumby had ignored the advice of alcohol taskforce members when it introduced the 2:00am lockout plan and barely mentioned the initiative during taskforce meetings.

“I don’t remember this being raised at any meeting,” taskforce member professor Robin Room told the newspaper. “I had not pushed for a lockout policy — there’s very little literature to prove that this works.”

The controversial 2:00 am lockout was introduced on June 3 by Liquor Licensing director Sue Maclellan, also a taskforce member.

However, the Government was left licking its wound after 120 venues took the government to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and were granted temporary exemptions from the lockout.

A spokesperson for the director of Liquor Licensing said the director had the power to introduce the lockout since December, but would not comment on whether the lockouts were raised at the taskforce meetings.

“It’s a little bit premature to be labelling the lockouts a failure considering it’s only been a couple of days over a month since the lockouts were introduced. It is wrong to suggest that the policy is a failure at this time,” the spokesperson said.