Review of the Registered Clubs Industry in NSW - Clubs NSW

13 Removing unnecessary regulatory restrictions on clubs
IPART considers that this provision is redundant. Whether or not applications are
routinely granted, the provision still represents unnecessary red tape and should be
removed.
Recommendation
65 That the Registered Clubs Act be amended to remove the provision restricting
membership numbers in clubs.
13.2 Retain sign-in procedures and the ‘five kilometre rule’
People entering a club whose home address is within a five kilometre radius of the
club are required to be members of the club, members of another registered club with
“similar objects” or be bona fide guests of a member. People entering the club whose
home address is further than five kilometres from the club may be granted
temporary membership. 247 Clubs are required to keep a register of members’ guests
and temporary members who attend the club each day. 248 This means that guests
and temporary members need to sign in when they enter a club.
While there is no provision that sign-in registers be supervised, clubs need to have
measures in place to maintain these registers. For larger clubs, this generally
involves employing a full-time door person. However, this is not practical for
smaller clubs with limited staff or those managed by volunteers.
The five kilometre rule protects the legislative concessions that registered clubs
receive, particularly in relation to the (Commonwealth) taxation of mutual income,
and has been reviewed by the clubs industry itself on a number of occasions and
defended on this basis. The sign-in rules similarly establish clubs as being for the
benefit of members and their guests.
While ClubsNSW put the view that there is scope to modernise procedures, 249 its
main concern seems to relate to providing protection for clubs against fraudulent
sign-in by club patrons. As discussed at the second Sydney roundtable, clubs may be
in breach of the Registered Clubs Act if sign-in requirements are not adhered to at all
times (for example, if someone were to sign in to a club as “Mickey Mouse”). While
this danger is greatest for smaller clubs, ClubsNSW also argued that a complex and
burdensome procedure is also required in larger clubs to minimise the risks of
incorrect entries in the sign-in registers.
ClubsNSW proposed that club patrons should be held responsible for correctly
entering their personal details in a club sign-in register and that as such clubs should
have an appropriate defence under section 31 of the Registered Clubs Act. It argued
that breaches should be issued only where a pattern of non-compliance is evident,
with warnings issued in cases of ad hoc non-compliance.
247 Registered Clubs Act s 30(3B).
248 Registered Clubs Act s4 and s 30(2)(m).
249 ClubsNSW, Sydney roundtable, 7 May 2008, p 49.
208 IPART Review of the Registered Clubs Industry in NSW