More than 100 licensed venues will have "strikes" against them wiped from the record by the NSW government under controversial changes to the penalty regime covering misbehaving pubs and clubs.
Racing Minister Paul Toole has confirmed that under amendments to the "three strikes" law passed by Parliament this week, strikes in force against pubs and clubs for serious breaches of the Liquor Act will be removed.
However, he said any licence conditions imposed on venues along with a strike will remain in place, subject to an application to the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority for their alteration or removal.
Since the scheme began in 2012, more than 100 venues have received strikes that remain in place for breaches including selling alcohol outside of authorised hours, failing to comply with lockout laws and supplying alcohol to a minor.
The amended scheme will register a strike against a venue's licensee instead of the venue itself.
The change followed lobbying from the NSW branch of the Australian Hotels Association, which complained that having a strike against a venue caused banks to revalue the business.
The industry says two strikes against a pub could prompt a bank to withdraw finance from a venue because after three strikes it faces the loss of its liquor licence.
In December, Fairfax Media revealed prominent Sydney publican Arthur Laundy lost a court battle which resulted in a strike being laid against The Steyne Hotel at Manly for serving alcohol to underage girls.
At the time, Mr Laundy said he was "shattered" by the decision. But the strike against The Steyne will be removed as part of the transition to the amended scheme.
On Thursday, Mr Laundy told Fairfax Media the change was "fair" because the existing scheme wrongly punishes the owner of the hotel.
"I believe the onus should be on the person who's doing the wrong thing," he said.
Mr Toole defended the decision to not transfer existing strikes to a venue's licensee.
"It would be impractical to move forward with this significant change if strikes historically imposed on venues were maintained," he said.
"This would result in two different schemes being in place at the same time."
Mr Toole argued the change "will mean new owners and operators ready to comply with the liquor laws are no longer unfairly burdened because they are unable to remove strikes incurred by previous management".
A NSW AHA spokesman said the original legislation "had unintended consequences for hotels that had significant implications for their businesses. We are pleased to see new, practical commonsense measures."
But Tony Brown, a spokesman for the NSW/ACT Alcohol Policy Alliance, said the revised scheme "is another example where pub profits have been put ahead of public interest and safety".
