Today Peter Doyle made a call to turn the restaurant business in NSW into a closed shop, this in reaction to Clover Moore’s attempts to open up the industry to choice and variety.
The biggest problem we have is ease of entry into our industry,” he said yesterday, outlining a plan he says will offer Sydney-siders more quiet drinking spots without hurting restaurateurs. “The Government needs to immediately cease issuing restaurant licences,” he said.
Under Mr Doyle’s proposal, current restaurant licence holders should be granted a dine-or-drink licence, meaning 70 per cent of patrons must order food with alcohol. He suggests a fee of $30 per seat with a yearly renewal of $10 per seat. “Anyone entering the restaurant business would need to purchase a licence or part of the seat quota from an existing licensed restaurant. This new licence would give the restaurateur a tangible asset,” he said. “It would also give the government a new revenue stream.”
What is this the Taxi industry? Sorry Mr Doyle, what you’re suggesting is a seriously bad deal for consumers.
On Friday I went to the launch of Raise the Bar, a campaign to get folks to voice their opinions on new liquor licenses being proposed for NSW, they have a neat mechanism where you send your MP a drink in support of the proposed legislation, on the day of the launch they were running on about 100 drinks sent per hour, a good indication on the mood for change in the community.
It’s worth pointing out, as the organisers did, that this is not a Sydney centric effort but something that will be important to many towns and areas that might be a big light on in terms of dining and drinking options. So if you’re in favour of this head on over to the site, sign up and send your MP a drink.
By the way, it’s looking like the AHA might be in the mood to change their view on small bars, the trade off? Yep, more pokies. But of course.
For sheer chutzpah, Doyle’s suggestion is hard to beat.
This is one of the very few issues of government policy where the matter is simple, black or white, right or wrong.
Victoria is watching this with jaws agape. It’s madness. What sort of government have you got up there? It’s totally, utterly gutless. John Cain bit-the-bullet on this 20 years ago! What are these people going to be like if they are ever confronted with a real problem if they run screaming from a bunch of publicans?
“Victoria is watching this with jaws agape.”
All the better for Sydney’s favorite croupier & hotelier to stick it in, one presumes?
You let Vic worry about her own virtue, James. Sydney’s been a millionaire’s tart since at least the Rum Rebellion.
Have a look at every licensing system and its based on the same thing - benefit the existing players and make it difficult for new entrants all disguised as protecting consumers.
Zwang! Good one, Jack.
Whereas Melbourne’s been the citizens’ concubine.
Not hard to guess which city’s a natural silky blonde and which has a riverine head of raven hair.
And oh yes, for our host and others, Brisbane’s a big wavy redhead - with freckles.
Perth is a bottle blonde, Adelaide a fussy brunette and Hobart’s got an archiac perm with dashing green streaks.
And Darwin wears a hat and Canberra a wig.
“Whereas Melbourne’s been the citizens’ concubine.”
*emits consoling insomniatic sigh at Universe’s occasional revealed symmetries*
Will despatch metaphoricke a.m. crate of Glen for like aptness re: Surfers, Broome, Bendigo and Alice.
And Geelong! Currently sporting some silvery cup arrangement on her head.
Townsville, where I was first posted as a callow subby, will always be a lazy exotic Pacific Islander with a splash of orchid against jet black coils. Could be a purely personal angle that, but.
Coober Pedy keeps hers short, brown, functional, tiniest of nods to vanity…a kind of Soviet-occupied folk-ethnic look, with the Party-utilitarian severity softened by a coat of opal dust and perpetual future-dreaming…
Is it dawn yet?
Phil gets it exactly right when he says “Sorry Mr Doyle, what you’re suggesting is a seriously bad deal for consumers.”. The same criticism applies to trade protection, which should be just as loudly condemned by all consumers regardless of their political views.
Up top mayhap, but the minge is a wild thatch of garish red.
For a long time now sydney has been lagging behind in the bar scene. It’s been bombarded by Millionaires with no taste hiring the same interior designers doing the same thing. (The Establishment, the Eastern, The Bourbon have all been designed by SJB.) They’re all really boring in their design. Everyone’s trying to Out Chandelier the next person, Out wallpaper the next person. It’s all aesthetic wank.
Melbourne is a shining example of people creating spaces with their own hands, no budgets and a wealth of ideas. This town of ours Sydney is one hell of a creative hotbed at the moment. Full of mega talented young interesting people. I’d much rather be drinking in a place where the owner is my age and has something to say. Not going to the same old places fo the 50 year old Pub veterans that have this liscence to print money.
Go to New York. Go to London, Go to Tokyo. Go to Melbourne. Everywhere you’ll notice the same thing. 30 is the new 20. 40 is the new 30. These people are single and they’re out all the time. Socializing wanting to have fun (Remember fun) after a hard day at the office. There’s more than enough to go around. If Melbourne’s landscape can fascilitate it ours can.
As for Restaurants… You’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t want to go to a restaurant to drink all night. Take me somewhere that’s fun! For too long, we as the punters have had to have the same venues forced down our throat. Every pub’s been renovated to resemble a bar but it’s still a pub. We’re dying of boredom here.
Go Clover, finally someone that gets it. Long live culture!
Here we go Sydney bashing Melbourne again…yawwwwn. Face it Sydney is the dullest place in the world in terms of cities to socialise in, crude, unsophoisticated and unfashionable with a horribly cheap facade.
err James, if you take care to read the arguments, we are bashing Sydney for its lack of Melbournian style establishments.
Yep I’d say so. When I was growing up it was the crew cut army jerk brawling outside of ’stilletos’.
Am I allowed to confess that as a regular patron of drinking establishments in Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin, and Melbourne, that I have not noticed any significant difference in drinking experience.
Until all these posts on this site that is, which lament the “backwardness” of Sydney.
However, I must say, that the only place I notice any difference IS on this site.
An interstate
pub crawlfact finding mission is called for!I second SATP’s idea. Finally an issue that is sure to receive bipartisan support from the varied LP denizens.
In the interests of identifying waterholes with the most convivial possible atmosphere an exhaustive exploration of the newly smoke-free pubs of the west of ireland is also called for!