Christmas is less than five weeks away and we have already received a number of enquiries asking us what the Christmas trading hours are for liquor licences. We have outlined the relevant restrictions below.

Christmas Eve

At Midnight on Christmas Eve premises must stop serving alcohol. The 30 minute grace period applies but all liquor must be consumed or disposed of by 12.30am. Although a licensee can allow patrons to remain on the premises to enjoy entertainment or purchase food or non-alcoholic drinks after this time, gaming and adult entertainment are not permitted at any time on Christmas Day – no matter what approvals you have.

This now applies to all licensed premises in Queensland.

On-Premises Sales Christmas Day

The sale of liquor on Christmas day is only permitted under certain circumstances.

With a meal – liquor may be supplied to a person who is eating a meal that has been prepared on the premises, in a place ordinarily set aside for dining. A person who has expressed an intention to dine may be supplied liquor:

• For up to one hour before ordering their meal; and
• After ordering and until they have finished eating; and
• For up to one hour after they have finished eating.

To in-house guests – liquor may be supplied to in-house guests of hotels (and their bona-fide guests), for consumption in the guest’s room or unit only, throughout Christmas Day.

Takeaway Sales on Christmas Day

Takeaway sales are not permitted on Christmas Day, all bottleshops must be closed.

Boxing Day Trading

Normal trading resumes on Boxing Day. If you have approved extended trading you may reopen at 12.01am on Boxing Day.

New Year’s Eve Trading

All licensees (except ‘community other’ licensees and any licensee with specific conditions relating to this period) are permitted to sell or supply liquor until 2.00am on New Years day, regardless of regular approved trading hours. The 30 minute grace period applies, meaning patrons must not consume liquor after 2.30am.

A licensee wishing to trade past 2.00am, and who does not have approved extended trading hours to do so, may apply for a one-off approval. Applications for temporary (one-off) approvals for extended trading hours must be lodged at least 21 days in advance.

In any calendar year licensees may obtain up to six one-off approvals for post-midnight trading and this allowance resets at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Therefore, a licensee who has reached their limit for 2019 may apply for an approval for New Year’s Eve, as it would be the first approval of 2020.

Liquor & Gaming Specialists Office Hours

Our office will close at 5.00pm on 22 December 2019 and reopen on 6 January 2020. We will be checking emails and responding to urgent enquiries over the break.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Like many of the regulatory requirements confronting liquor licensees in Queensland, it’s difficult to find any express reference in the Liquor Act to the consequences of an Approved Manager’s RMLV certificate expiring.  In fact, despite an intensive reading and searching exercise, I’ve failed to turn anything up. This surprised me as I expected one of two outcomes.

• The first was that hidden away in the high 142ZZZ(etc) sections of the Liquor Act would be an unnoticed provision declaring the automatic cancellation or suspension of the approved manager licence.
• The second was that there would be no consequence at all, and it would really be a matter for the approved manager to address on pain of being investigated and found to be no longer a suitable person to hold the approved manager status.

In the absence of any express provision, I formed the initial view that the second outcome was the real one, which I cautiously communicated to a particular liquor compliance officer.  However, perhaps prompted by a general sense of doubt – logically how can the lapsing of the basic qualification for being an approved manager not have any effect – the astute, if somewhat inexperienced compliance officer did some further homework and came back to me with an alternative and compelling proposition.

Under Section 155AE of the Liquor Act, a liquor licensee in Queensland is required to keep on the premises a copy of the current RMLV certificate of any approved manager employed in the business.  Note the word “current”. The offence carries a whopping 100 penalty unit maximum fine, which translates to a large sum of money – a penalty unit being similar in value to bitcoin. Unlike bitcoin, the value of a penalty unit increases every year without fail, roughly in line with the CPI, on 1 July.  As at the time of writing the value is $126.15 increasing to $130.55. Multiply this by 5 if the offender is a corporation.

So the simple version of things, concisely stated by the intrepid compliance officer, is that the clear intention of the legislation is that whilst an approved manager approval does not automatically lapse or get cancelled or suspended upon expiry of the RMLV certificate, that person should not act in the capacity of an approved manager until a new RMLV certificate has been obtained.

Although it seems like a glaring omission in the Act that it does not deal directly with such an obvious matter, it’s hard to argue with the logic. So, if you haven’t done so recently, now would be a good time to check the expiry dates on your approved managers’ RMLV certificates.

Liquor licence holders in Queensland continue to struggle with the vastly reduced opportunities to apply for one off extended hours permits. Here at LGS we have produced a flow chart and some notes which hopefully will help people navigate the new requirements. A couple of important things to remember…

First, applications for Queensland liquor permits are required to be lodged at least 21 days prior to the event. Recent experience has shown that OLGR are taking this quite seriously and will only accept a late application if it includes an endorsement of no objections from Police. Further recent experience has been that Police are equally reluctant to deal with applications lodged outside the statutory deadline. Therefore licensees would be wise to plan well in advance.

Second, the rule that a liquor licensee can effectively only obtain an extended hours permit for one event per month can have a harsh impact on businesses which would traditionally host numerous functions during a set period; such as Christmas parties during November and December. For licensees in this category it may be worth exploring a permanent extension of trading hours. LGS are working on strategies to minimise the cost of these kinds of approvals.

Lastly, despite the general policy of winding back liquor trading hours around the state, the one off extended hours permits can, remarkably, be applied for through until 5am. Hopefully this provides licensees with an opportunity to generate some additional revenue if only on the handful of significant dates throughout the year.

Download the extended hours approval flowchart and notes. (PDF viewer required.)