A Glitter Strip veteran, residing in Surfers Paradise, slams new compulsory nightclub ID scanning. He claims that this act is “un-Australian” if it continues to keep a 10pm start, as well as exempt casinos.
The ID scan is not compulsory everywhere. This is underlined by the fact that the Star’s Broadbeach property have no legal requirements to be scanning the IDs of patrons, whereas the venues only a few blocks away in Broadbeach’s Safe Night Precinct (SNP), the scanning has been made compulsory.
More About the ID Scanning
The dawning of Saturday the 1st of July 2017, brought with it the new ID scanning issue. This issue stated that all bars staying open in SNPs such as Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach after midnight are now expected to scan the IDs of their patrons from 10:00 pm.
What these scanners do is; since they are directly linked to a statewide database, these scanners will redflag any and all people with either police or court-ordered bar bans as well as specific individual venue bans.
Responses to the ID Scanning
Craig Duffy, Owner of Hollywood Showgirls, claims that with casinos being exempt from the ID scanning process, it goes against the entire point of employing the scanners in the first place. Duffy agreed that blocking these people from entering bars was a good idea. However, he feels that it would be unsuccessful. He bluntly states that the idea of only scanning after 10 pm is nonsensical because all banned patrons will realise that they are allowed access before that and must leave before the specified time arrives.
If that wasn’t enough Duffy frankly claims that the exemption of casinos from this ID scanning is blatant favouritism by the government. And yet another example of what he refers to as the unfair playing field of the new liquor laws. To which Duffy provides the example of casinos being exempt from the new rule of 3am last drinks.
Duffy claims that the inequality of these rules is “un-Australian”
ID Scanning Implementation
On Saturday night, the launch of the ID scanning saw havoc break out at Glitter Strip venues. Reason being is that Canadian, Kiwi and US IDs were reportedly incompatible. Thus, the details of all of the patrons affected than had to be entered in manually which caused for irritable queuing customers.
Simon King, manager at Melbas Nightclub in Surfers Paradise, says that he quite likes the idea of the compulsory ID scanning. However, he states that the launch problems, referring to the incompatible ID’s, were quite a nightmare to deal with.
Response to ID Scanning Criticisms
Anthony Lynham, the acting Attorney-General, states that the reason casinos are exempt is due to their security being far more stringent as well as CCTV coverage of the entire casino. He claims that at the core of these businesses is highly regulated gaming.
Further, addressing the issue of the time constriction, Lynham states that the 10pm deadline was put in place in order to balance both the convenience of operations as well as to minimise harm to the business. On this note, he states that licensees have full rights to scan IDs as well as refuse the entry of specific patrons for illegal or disruptive and violent behaviour, at any other time of the day.
As for the incompatibility problems, Yvette D’Ath, Police and Minister for Justice points out that they were merely teething problems and that the launch was a success overall. She proves this by pointing out that across Queensland, on the night of the launch, 89600 IDs were scanned, of which 7 were red flagged patrons. This number includes the four that were flagged in Surfers Paradise as well as Brisbane’s two flagged patrons.
Opposition to The ID Scanning
John Paul Langbroek a Surfers Paradise MP that stands firmly in his opposition to this motion, says that this botched launch with the ID’s being incompatible is considered “typical Labor”.
This refers to the Australian political party, with the slogan “We’ll put people first”. Langbroek goes on to say that Labor does not get the Gold Coast. He goes on to point out that Labor has no members there, claiming that there is absolutely no consideration for tourism in this area. He claims that this makes it a frustrating process for operators.