On Christmas Eve licensed liquor trading must finish at 12 midnight regardless of whether your permit allows later trading at other times. Licensed gaming machine monitoring operators will disable all gaming machines for 24 hours from 12 midnight on Christmas Eve, 24 December 2008. Liquor bar staff must finish serving at 12 midnight and patrons must finish drinks and leave the premises by 12.30am.

This year marks the final occaion on which licensees with on-premises (cabaret) licences will be allowed to serve until 3am Christmas morning. Under the new legislation coming into force on 1 January 2009, standard trading hours for the new subsidiary on premises (entertainment) licence will be 10 am to 12 midnight and the concession for Christmas trading has been removed.

Bottle shops

Takeaway alcohol can only be purchased up to 12 midnight on Christmas Eve. Bottle shops must be closed on Christmas Day.

Adult entertainment venues

Adult entertainment is prohibited from 12 midnight on Christmas Eve and throughout Christmas Day.

Hotel guests

Alcohol can be provided to in-house guests in their room or in other approved areas of the hotel. On Christmas Day, licensees may only serve alcohol to patrons eating a meal in the dining area of the premises between 10am and 12 midnight. This means that liquor may be served to patrons for one hour before dining, during the course of a meal, and for one hour after completion of the meal.

On Boxing Day, usual trading hours and conditions resume.

New Year’s Eve

On New Year’s Eve, all licensees are permitted to trade until 2am. This applies regardless of your regular approved trading hours.

This means that the bar must finish serving at 2am and patrons must finish drinks and leave the premises by 2.30am.

On New Year’s Eve, authorised licensees may operate gaming machines until 2.30am. Licensees who have approval to trade later than these hours may continue operating until the approved closing time. Any licensee wishing to trade beyond these hours, who does not have current approval, needs to lodge an application for extended trading hours with OLGR before 19 December 2008. OLGR’s head office will be closed from 5pm on 24 December 2008 and will re-open on 2 January 2009.

Liquor & Gaming Specialists Christmas Break

Liquor & Gaming Specialists’ office will be closed for the Christmas break from 24 December 2008, reopening on 5 January 2009.

Updated 4 February 2020

With the introduction on 1 January 2009 of the position of approved manager for licensed premises the position of nominee for a liquor licence will cease to exist.

Who Can Be An Approved Manager?

Current liquor nominees will be deemed to be approved managers from 1 January 2009 and the deemed approval will continue until 30 June 2010. If the individual wishes to continue to be an approved manager after this date, he or she must complete the mandatory training courses, Responsible Management of Licensed Venues and Responsible Service of Alcohol, and submit the relevant application form with supporting documents and approved fee to the Licensing Division before 30 April 2010.

An individual who is currently a Liquor Licence Nominee, Casino Employee, Casino Key Employee, Gaming Employee, Gaming Nominee, Gaming Repairer, Keno Employee Wagering, Key Lottery Employee or Key Monitoring Employee and holds current RMLV and RSA certificates may become an approved manager by applying for a fast-track upgrade.

Any person over the age of 18 who does not fall into the above categories and wishes to gain approval as a manager must complete the mandatory training courses and submit the application form with supporting documents and the prescribed fee to the Licensing Division.

What Are The Requirements Relating To Approved Managers?

While the licensed premises is open during standard trading hours, 10 am to 12 midnight, an approved manager must be on site or reasonably available. Reasonably available is defined as being able to be contacted by the staff on the premises and being able to be at the premises within one hour of being contacted. If the premises is trading outside of standard hours an approved manager must be on site at all times. Some exemptions apply for individual licensees who can be on site or reasonably available at all times the premises is open. Premises classified as low risk do not need to have an approved manager unless they have approval to trade past midnight.

There is no longer a need to maintain an approved manager register. However, the licensee must have a copy of the approved manager’s current RMLV certificate on the premises.

Where Can You Find More Information?

The application forms for approved managers are now available from the OLGR website. Whilst the Licensing Division has indicated it is now able to accept applications for approval as a manager, the application fee has not yet been prescribed. However, we have been told that the fee will be $366 ($521.70 in 2020) or a figure very close to this amount. The OLGR website also outlines the requirements relating to approved managers and the transitional arrangements dealing with nominees.

If you have any specific queries relating to your obligations under the new legislation, please call us on 07 3252 4066 or contact us by email.

Update 8 July 2015 – current application fees and an online form are available on the OLGR Website.

Update 4 February 2020 – removal of reference to Approved Manager Register and addition of information on low risk premises.

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Perhaps the most contentious amendment to the liquor act is the reintroduction of annual licence fees. The new fee structure is built on a model of perceived risk with annual fees varying in line with certain trading conditions: licence type, trading hours, provision of meals, etc.

However, notable by its absence is any reference to risk based on the size or capacity of a venue. Whilst licensed clubs will pay a higher fee if the membership exceeds 2,000, no similar threshold has been applied to commercial licence holders. This creates a situation where the owner of a 40 seat restaurant, who wants the flexibility to remain open until 1 am on a Friday night, may be paying the same amount in annual fees as a 1,000 patron capacity nightclub open until 3 am every Friday and Saturday.

Several smaller operators are now weighing up the advantages and disadvantages of offering a liquor service and it is likely some marginal venues will elect to surrender the liquor licence rather than pay the additional fees.

Unfortunately, any submissions made to the government in an attempt to change this fee structure were unsuccessful and from 1 January 2009 all licensees will be forced to pay up or face immediate suspension and possible cancellation of the liquor licence.

To give licensees a clearer idea of the implications of this aspect of the amendments, the following paragraphs expand on some of the key points. Please contact us if you have any questions in relation to this important matter.

Compliance History

One of the perceived risk factors affecting annual fees is compliance history. A licensee who receives infringement notices or disciplinary action will face increased annual fees the following year. The maximum penalty, in addition to any fines received following disciplinary action, is $20,000 for ‘major trauma’ which is taken to mean death or a severe assault on the premises.

The good news for all current licensees is that when the new fee structure is introduced in 2009, all licensees will be given a clean slate for the purposes of calculating fees based on compliance history. The earliest anyone will have to pay this component of the annual fee will be in the period commencing 1 July 2010, at which time the fee will be assessed on compliance history for the preceding 12 months.

Although the licensee, approved manager or staff member is responsible for any non compliance, the fee is applied to the licence and is not affected by transfer. In other words, an incoming licensee will be assessed on the compliance record of the previous business owner.

Therefore, anyone buying licensed premises will need to carry out a search on the compliance history of the business vendor to ensure the annual fees will not increase in the following year. This search can only be completed with the consent of the current licensee.

Non Payment of Fees

The first annual fee will be due at the end of January 2009 and subsequent fees will be due at the end of July each year. If the fee is unpaid the licence will be suspended immediately and may be cancelled if the fee remains unpaid.

Grant Fee

In the earlier stages of the liquor review there was reference to an application fee and a grant fee. The grant fee was not carried forward to the final version of amendments. However, new licensees will pay an annual fee on a pro rata basis calculated on the period from the first day of the month following approval of the licence to the end of the financial year.

At the time of writing this article the revised application fees have not been published.

Extended Trading

The Liquor Act now defines four periods of extended trading hours.

Two periods before 10 am: from 7 to 9am and from 9 to 10 am, and
Two periods after Midnight: from midnight to 3 am and from 3 to 5 am.

Licensees will be required to pay a fee for trading in each of the additional periods.

Licensees may reduce the fees for extended trading periods by 25% if trading on weekends only. Weekends are defined as Saturday and Sunday. Therefore, approval to trade after Midnight on a Sunday (that is into the early hours of Monday morning) will require payment of the full fee.

A licensee may apply for a limited number of one-off permits each year: four permits to allow trading before 10 am and twelve permits to allow trading after midnight. An application fee will be required for each permit but this will not affect the annual licence fees.

The Office of Liquor & Gaming Regulation released Final Outcomes – Review of the Liquor Act 1992 on 14th October 2008. This is the first official publication since the amendments to the Liquor Act were passed by the Queensland Parliament in September.

The report describes in plain English many of the ways in which licensees will be affected by the changes to the Liquor Act when they come into force on 1st January 2009. The final version of the annual fee self-assessment table is included in the document and licensees will now be able to calculate the fees payable in January.

How much will you have to pay?

To calculate the amount you will be required to pay when the fees are introduced in January:

1. Tick all of the boxes in the self-assessment table, except the Compliance section*, which apply to your business.
2. Add the amounts together – remember the fees are payable for each bottleshop and each late trading period.
3. Divide the total by two.

The final figure is the amount you will have to pay in January 2009 for the six month period to 30th June. The full annual fee will be payable in July 2009.

*For the purposes of calculating annual fees OLGR will not consider a licensee’s compliance history until the assessment for the year beginning 1st July 2010. However, the full fee will be payable for that period based on the licensees compliance history since the introduction of fees. Additionally, the fees are attached to the licence and if the licence is transferred before the assessment the new licensee will be liable for all fees.