You can read a very interesting article about the views of...

You can read a very interesting article about the views of Liquor Licensing chief Mark Brennan on the following link:

http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac;jsessionid=803DA8713471302A81DA0960262A28CB?sy=afr&pb=all_ffx&dt=selectRange&dr=1month&so=relevance&sf=text&sf=headline&rc=10&rm=200&sp=brs&cls=1047&clsPage=1&docID=AGE1006111O5NQ3F72GC

I don't know whether he is still Liquor Licencing chief, but here are some quotes:

QUOTES:
" ....... Is he serious? How can he shrug off the challenge that ultimately defeated previous director Sue Maclellan, who presided over the mostly failed 2am lockouts, and was strongly attacked for liberally enforcing security conditions against late-night live music venues. In the process she became a liability for a government already scared stiff of losing the seats of Richmond and Melbourne to the Greens, who were making all the right noises on the issue......"

".....Does Brennan agree that the political backdrop, a government crackdown on licensed venues might have had some influence on Maclellan's decisions, even at a subconscious level? "Nuh." She was independent and he'll be independent, "it'll be my call"....."

"...... THE government has appealed a VCAT decision allowing the Exford Hotel in Russell Street to retain its 24-hour licence. Robinson also wants to slash the number of bottle shops staying open until 11pm. But the mechanics are tricky. The government is looking at varying the fee options as a way of encouraging more shops to close earlier. It has also called for bottle shops to enforce stricter controls on sales to minors and curb "pre-loading".

In case this might have passed you by, "pre-loading" (getting tanked before hitting the town) has now become a term widely used in police reports and other official documents. The greater incidence of binge drinking, which experts say has been fuelled by the proliferation of high-risk licensed venues, comes with a new, disturbingly workman-like vocabulary. Terms such as "side-loading" (topping up while hopping between clubs) and "back-loading" (staying lubricated after leaving clubs) are also now part of the lexicon. "Glassing" is yet another verb of the times....."

"..... Those in the liquor industry inclined to complain about steep licence fee increases should also be warned this is unlikely to go down well with Brennan. "Anyone in the industry should be looking at it as a business cost," he says.

Fee hikes, even steep ones, he says, should be viewed in the same way as rent rises after market reviews. (For example, strip clubs, which have copped a $30,000 licence fee under the government's new risk-based cost structure, should accept reality or close their doors.)

On the other hand, he suspects quite a few venue operators are in the wrong licence category to begin with and there should be better processes for picking this up early. Licence holders need more education in general, he says.

"As small business commissioner I so often saw people going into business so enthusiastic to be going into business and preparations like a lease or liquor licence they saw as paperwork . . . as something to be put in a drawer and never looked at again," he says.

"But a licence has all sorts of conditions attached and they [licensees] might know you can't open past 11pm and can't serve to kids, but don't know about other conditions."