School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2018 May;37(4):537-545. doi: 10.1111/dar.12701. Epub 2018 Apr 16.
The association between alcohol availability, alcohol consumption and, in turn, alcohol-related harms is well established. Policies to reduce alcohol-related harms focus on limiting accessibility through the regulation of the liquor industry, including trading hours. On 1 July 2016, the Queensland Government introduced legislation to reduce ordinary liquor trading hours, replacing 5 am closing times with 3 am cessation of liquor sales in designated entertainment precincts and 2 am cessation of sales across the rest of the state. However, the amendment was under-inclusive and did not apply to temporary extended trading permits, a provision of the Liquor Act 1992 allowing one-off variations in trading hours for special events.
We use 24 months of data (1 January 2015 to 31 December 2016) from the Office of Liquor Gaming and Regulation to explore patterns of extended trading permit use across Queensland, pre- and post- 1 July 2016.
We find that following the Amendment in 2016 there was also a distinct shift in the utilisation of temporary extended trading permits, with a 63% increase in approved permits between 2015 and 2016. Temporal clustering around key calendar events dissipated following 1 July 2016 with consistent concentration of permit utilisation over consecutive weeks.
Using temporary extended trading permits venue owners avoided earlier closing times and continued to operate until 5 am. The findings provide lessons for future policy implementation by illustrating the capacity for under-inclusive legislation to result in the dilution of intended effects.
酒精供应、消费与随之而来的酒精相关伤害之间的关联已得到充分证实。旨在减少酒精相关伤害的政策侧重于通过限制酒类行业的可及性来实现，包括对营业时间的监管。2016 年 7 月 1 日，昆士兰州政府出台立法，将普通酒类交易时间缩短，在指定娱乐区，酒类销售在凌晨 3 点停止，而在该州其他地区则在凌晨 2 点停止销售，取代了凌晨 5 点的关闭时间。然而，修正案存在包容性不足的问题，不适用于临时延长交易许可证，《1992 年酒类法》的这一条款允许一次性调整特殊活动的交易时间。
我们使用酒类监管办公室 2015 年 1 月 1 日至 2016 年 12 月 31 日的 24 个月数据，探讨了昆士兰州在 2016 年 7 月 1 日之前和之后延长交易许可证使用的模式。
我们发现，2016 年修正案之后，临时延长交易许可证的使用也出现了明显的转变，2015 年至 2016 年期间，批准的许可证增加了 63%。2016 年 7 月 1 日之后，围绕关键日历事件的时间聚类现象消失，许可证使用连续数周保持集中。
通过使用临时延长交易许可证，场馆所有者避免了提前关闭时间，继续营业到凌晨 5 点。这些发现为未来的政策实施提供了教训，说明了包容性不足的立法可能导致预期效果减弱。
