From 1 January 2009 the position of nominee for a liquor licence will be replaced by the position of approved manager. Anyone who is a nominee for a liquor licence on 31 December 2008 will be deemed to be an approved manager for the licensed premises from that date. However, the amendments to the Liquor Act require the licensee to have an approved manager available or on site at all times the premises is trading. Therefore, to cover the typical trading hours of a licensed premises, most licensees will need two or more approved managers on the roster.
A licensee must take reasonable steps to ensure that an approved manager is available or on the premises during licensed trading hours. During the transitional period from 1 January to 30 June 2009 the Licensing Division will consider the lodgement of an approved manager application as fulfilling this requirement.
The approved manager application forms have been available on OLGRs website for several weeks. Although the forms state that you must provide A copy of current Responsible Management of Licensed Venues (RMLV) and Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) certificates , the Division will accept applications without current certificates – provided the applicant gives an undertaking to complete the training as soon as possible.
Additionally, an employee who lodges an approved manager application before 1 January 2009 may act as an approved manager while the application is processed.
To ensure you can fulfil the new requirements relating to approved managers, we recommend you lodge all applications as soon as possible. To make an application online, go to the OLGR website. For more information on approved managers visit our documents page and download the OLGR factsheets.
