Map your steps - liquor licensing WA

These steps provide an indicative guide only; it is important to tailor your approach to your local community.

Local Drug Action Teams may address liquor licensing in a number of ways, such as:

• submitting an objection
• encouraging and assisting local residents to submit their own objections
• or working more broadly in the community to raise awareness of alcohol harms and the liquor licensing process.

Find out about new liquor licence applications

LDATs can find out about new liquor licence applications through the DLGSCI, which lists all licence applications currently advertised for public comment and the closing date for objections.

The public register of advertised applications is available at Racing Gaming and Liquor WA

The application and the public interest assessment are available to the public.

LDATs may wish to set up a system to monitor for new liquor licensing applications. Consider dividing up the work of monitoring among partner organisations in your LDAT. Some partners, such as police and council, may be in a position where their organisation must be notified about new applications. (This can be part of the application requirement to demonstrate that there has been community consultation.)

Understand grounds for objection

Grounds for objection:

• that the grant of the application would not be in the public interest
• that the grant of the application would cause undue harm or ill-health to people, or any group of people due to the use of liquor
• that, if the application were granted:
  • undue offence, annoyance, disturbance or inconvenience to persons who reside or work in the vicinity, or to persons in or traveling to or from an existing or proposed place of public worship, hospital or school, would be likely to occur
  • the amenity, quiet or good order of the locality in which the premises or proposed premises are, or are to be, situated would in some other manner be lessened.

Liquor Control Act 1988

The details of the Liquor Control Act 1988 are important because they indicate what will be considered when the licence is being determined, and therefore what kinds of objections are relevant.

The Act states its objectives as:

1. 1. to regulate the sale, supply and consumption of liquor
   2. to minimise harm or ill-health caused to people, or any group of people, due to the use of liquor
   3. to cater for the requirements for liquor and related services, with regard to the proper development of the liquor industry, the tourism industry and other hospitality industries in the state.

Collect evidence to support your liquor licence objection

It is important to collect evidence to support your liquor licence objection.

As you collect evidence to support your liquor licence objection you will be building a profile of your community. LDATs can create local community profiles in advance, so they are ready to respond to potentially problematic licence applications as they arise. Being proactive and collecting evidence early is recommended so communities can make strong submissions, particularly when timeframes for community participation are short.

It is important to draw on expert opinion and research to support your liquor licence objection. You may wish to divide responsibility for collecting evidence with your partners. Some partners may be well placed to collect certain types of data.

Local data on the following areas can be useful as they are relevant to objections under the Liquor Control Act 1988:

• health
• injury
• property damage
• safety of the general public
• pleasantness and attractiveness of the area (amenity).

Evidence to support liquor licensing objections

Liquor outlet density

Liquor outlet density data provides information on:

• the number of licensed premises in the locality of the application. Locality refers to a 2 km radius in metropolitan areas, and a 3 km radius in rural areas
• the number of licensed premises in the locality of the application, compared against other regions such as the Western Australian average and the national average
• how the number of licensed premises has changed over time.

You can access the list of current licences sorted by postcode, postcode range, suburb, and premises name on the DLGSCI website.⁶

Please note that any data or comparisons presented are open to critique by the applicant regarding technical accuracy.

Why it is relevant

If your community already has a high density of liquor outlets, it will support your argument that adding another will increase harms from alcohol.

If your liquor outlet density has increased rapidly, you can argue that there has been an introduction of many new outlets and the impact of the outlets on the community needs to be determined before introducing another.

This data will be relevant if you can link it back to the grounds of objection such as a negative impact on health or increasing harm.

Trading hours

A liquor licence only permits alcohol sales during certain hours. Permitted hours of sale differ between licences. Some licence applications seek to extend ordinary trading hours beyond midnight. Ordinary hours for specific licence types can be found on the DLGSCI website

Some days have special restrictions on hours of sale. These include Anzac Day and Good Friday.

If your community has many late-trading venues, adding another — either by extending the hours of a current venue, or licensing a new one — could increase harms.

Why it is relevant

If your community does not have many late-trading venues, you may still be concerned about noise, litter, drink-driving, intoxicated behaviour, and violence that can be associated with late trading.

SEIFA rating

Socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA) are produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). They map relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.

For LDATs seeking more information, the ABS have produced a number of resources to explain how to use the indexes. You might want to start with the SEIFA basics ² or the video tutorial introducing SEIFA³.

Why it is relevant

Communities with a lower socio-economic status experience more alcohol-related harms than more advantaged communities.

If your community’s SEIFA is low it can help you demonstrate that your community is at higher risk of alcohol-related harms.

Community profiles and data

There are a number of existing sources of information that can inform your community profile.

Your local council should have a profile of your area which they may share with you.

The ABS has also put together community profiles that include data such as educational attainment and population demographics.

You can download a community profile⁴ for your LGA and postal area from the ABS website.

Why it is relevant

Harms from alcohol vary between communities for many complex and interconnected reasons.

Communities can be at increased risk of harms if they have a low educational attainment, limited employment opportunities, and lower relative socio-economic status.⁵

Rates of violence

Rates of alcohol-related violence include assaults and family violence. Ideally these

rates would be compared over time and between areas.

Your local police or council may have data on the rates of alcohol-related violence.

Please note that any data or comparisons presented are open to critique by the applicant regarding technical accuracy.

Why it is relevant

If your community is experiencing high rates of alcohol-related violence this is an important point to make in your objection.

However, caution should be taken in relying too heavily on ‘alcohol-related’ crimes. This is because rates are dependent on the police at the time recording such information. If it is available, crimes such as assaults and family violence tend to be under-reported.

Health outcomes

Data on alcohol-attributable hospitalisations and deaths in your LGA may be helpful to your submission. Consider approaching your local health care providers, such as hospitals, to find out if they collect data you can use.

You could also consider the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) data on alcohol harms,⁶ including health outcomes. The AIHW’s report on the impact of alcohol on Australia’s burden of disease and injury may also be relevant.⁷

You may also consider approaching treatment services that help people address their alcohol dependency.

Why it is relevant

Current rates of alcohol-attributable health issues in your community may be taken into consideration when the licence is being decided on.

It can support the argument that increasing the availability of alcohol, either by increasing liquor outlet density or by extending venue trading hours, may increase the existing burden of alcohol-attributable health issues.

Property damage

Property damage refers to both public property (such as stolen or damaged street signs, or damaged nature strips) and private property (such as broken shopfront windows).

Your local council, police, local business association, or residents in the entertainment precinct may be able to provide this data. It may also be useful to ask local businesses in the entertainment precinct/other areas with a concentration of liquor outlets what levels of damage and litter they must deal with after a Friday or Saturday night (e.g. vomit, smashed windows, noise, disruption etc.).

Why it is relevant

The DLGSCI takes into consideration whether granting the licence will increase local property damage and decrease the overall amenity of the area.

If there are already high rates of property damage, or an overall decrease in amenity, due to liquor outlets and their patrons’ behaviour you can argue on those grounds that granting or extending licences will increase those problems.

Get the community involved

LDATs have an opportunity to involve the community in liquor licensing processes. This may involve raising awareness in the community about why licensing matters, how the community can get involved in the process, and gathering local feedback and needs. For example, as price also affects alcohol consumption levels, community members may be particularly concerned about bulk-purchase, barn style bottle shops opening in their neighbourhood, heavily discounted take-away liquor promotions, and irresponsible ‘happy hour’ or other cheap drink promotions at drinking venues.

The number of objections may be seen by decision-makers as an indicator of social impact and increase the influence on decisions. Therefore, when your LDAT lodges an objection to a licence, it is worthwhile encouraging community objections and assisting community partners and local residents to submit their own objections to that same licence.

It is worth noting that objections can be struck out if they are repetitive or don’t provide the required amount of proof.

LDATs may raise local awareness and engage the community in a number of different ways, including:

• speak to the local paper
• hold a community meeting
• create a Facebook group/discussion
• form a coalition with local organisations.

Formulate your response

When formulating your response, focus on the following:

• Community concerns: You need to clearly articulate the community's concerns about how the new licence would affect the community. Consider how you can demonstrate the validity of those concerns with the data you have. Link your argument to the Liquor Control Act 1988 grounds for objection. Draw on expert opinion and research when possible. Consider the concerns of your LDAT, community members and partner organisations.
• The outcome you are seeking. Depending on the specific licence application you may be seeking different outcomes. Perhaps you want restrictions such as a cap on trading hours, a ban on late-night trading, and certain types of drink restrictions (like no shots or doubles) or you may not want the licence granted at all. You may be more likely to get restrictions placed on a licence than to have the licence denied.

Community concerns, the outcome you are seeking, and the data about your community, should all guide how you put your objection together. Objections should also be put together in consultation with the community and partner organisations.

Lodge your objection

The DLGSCI provides a template notice of objection that you must use, which includes a document checklist and some further guidance on objecting

You must indicate that you have done this on the notice of objection that you then submit to the DLGSCI.

You can submit your objection to DLGSCI via:

• Post: Director of Liquor Licensing, PO Box 6119, East Perth, WA, 6892
• Email: rgl@rgl.wa.gov.au

Follow up

Once your objection has been processed by DLGSCI, they will inform you of any next steps required, including any recommendations such as the submission of additional information or evidence to support the objections.

Measuring success and reporting

Measure the success of your liquor licensing activity:

• Collect measures of success with the community organisations you are engaging with, as well as the community members you have been reaching with your liquor licensing activity.
• Report on your success, acquit your funds and consider other things you can do to support your community (see Next steps).