Qld Parliament Came Within A Single Vote Of Repealing 1am Lockouts Last Night

People in Queensland came close to seeing the state Labor government's controversial 1am lockout laws be repealed at a parliamentary sitting last night, with the ultimate failure of the motion coming down to a tie-breaker vote cast by speaker Peter Wellington.

The motion to repeal the impending lockouts, which are set to be introduced in February next year, was heard as part of the first sitting of the 55th parliament of Queensland, put forward by LNP member for Kawana Jarrod Bleijie.

He moved:

"That this House calls on the Palaszczuk Labor government to scrap the introduction of a 1am lockout from 1 February 2017 because it will destroy jobs, destroy our tourism reputation and make no credible difference to violence in our late-night entertainment precincts."

In making the motion, Bleijie reiterated his party's belief that the LNP's pre-existing Safe Night Out initiative had, as "the most comprehensive strategy in Australia for dealing with alcohol-fuelled violence", been sufficient in addressing the state's ongoing problems in the area without the need to limit trading hours or implement further lockouts.

During the lengthy back-and-forth, Bleijie also criticised a vocal lockout supporter and the member for Stafford, Dr Anthony Lynham, and questioned the validity of the government's promised review of its laws given the apparent pre-existing biases of the chosen auditor, Deakin University professor — and noted lockouts proponent — Peter Miller.

"On 9 April 2015, bearing in mind that that is before the legislation was introduced, Mr Miller wrote an article for The Conversation titled ‘Early pub closing times work for Kings Cross—they will work for Queensland too’," Bleijie explained.

"… Then he wins a tender to review the very laws that he has proposed. He is reviewing the laws that he has suggested. He said to the Labor government, ‘You should have these laws in the state of Queensland’. They give him these laws in the state Queensland and then he wins money for a tender to review those very laws. That is not an independent review."

Also lending support to Bleijie's cause was the LNP minister for the Whitsundays, Jason Costigan, who tried to get the point across — as so often is glossed-over in the south-east of the state — that the far north is so culturally and socially removed from Brisbane that "just because it is a good rule in Fortitude Valley does not mean it is a good rule for north Queensland", a fact acknowledged on both sides of the political divide in the region itself.

"What is really interesting is that Labor councillor on the Cairns Regional Council Richie Bates famously said almost 18 months ago that he did not agree with his comrades down here on George Street," Costigan told the assembly. "We need these laws like a hole in the head, was the short version of what he thought. Let us go to what Councillor Bates said.

"Let us not forget that the Cairns Regional Council put politics aside because they knew that in a tourism mecca like the Whitsundays and Airlie Beach these laws are dumb and ill-conceived and will not provide any tangible benefits in combatting the scourge of violence in our party precincts."

In rebuttal, Lynham claimed that Bleijie's boasts about Safe Night Out were unfounded — "There was no database; the first thing they got rid of was the data" — and disputed the member for Kawana's claims that he had backflipped on his own position regarding the usefulness of such legislation, as well as defending the party's selection of Miller as independent reviewer.

"The member for Kawana referred to an article in The Courier-Mail where I stated that lockouts in isolation do not work," he said. "It needs a complete package, as was made perfectly clear in that article. Cherry picking data is typical of the member for Kawana.

"He also asked why we chose Peter Miller. He is a professor representing six separate universities. That is why he won the tender." 

In defending the government's planned lockouts introduction, Lynham cited examples from Amsterdam, Kings Cross, Brazil, Canada, the UK and the US, and decried pre-lockouts Kings Cross as "grossly overcrowded, violent, noisy and dirty" but the present vibe as "much safer, quieter and cleaner".

Forty-two LNP members and two independents (Billy Gordon and Rob Pyne) voted to repeal the laws; the same number of ALP members and two Katter Party representatives (Bob Katter and Shane Knuth) voted to maintain them. 

The numbers being tied, Wellington sided with the negative, defeating the motion 45-44. 

A full transcript of the session is available here.