QHA Review July 2017

LEGAL MATTERS
with Curt Schatz
ID SCANNING – A QUICK GLANCE
AT THE NEW RULES
QHA REVIEW | 44
As you will be aware, the Queensland Government
laws requiring the use of ID scanners in a number of
licensed venues came into effect on 1 July. These
laws are designed to assist in the reduction of alcoholrelated
violence, and come after the rollback of the
lockout laws.
The new laws require any hotel venue in a Safe Night
Precinct to have networked ID scanners in place
for all patrons entering from 10pm onwards on any
night that the venue is approved to trade after 12am.
Importantly, these requirements are based on your
approved permanent trading hours, rather than your
actual trading hours, and as such they will apply
regardless if you actually choose to trade past 12am.
ID SCANNERS
The ID scanners will be linked to an approved
networked system, and will enable you to cross-check
a person’s ID against a database of individuals subject
to court-ordered bans, police bans, and venue-specific
bans. You must refuse entry to persons subject to
court-ordered or police bans, however you can use
your discretion where the person is subject to a venuespecific
ban only, or where the court-ordered and
police bans do not include your premises.
EXEMPT CLASSES
In addition to licensees located in a Safe Night Precinct
that do not trade past 12am, a number of licence
classes are exempt from the requirements as follows:
• Commercial Special Facility Licences – including
casinos and convention centres;
• Subsidiary On-Premises Licences (Meals) –
including restaurants; and
• Subsidiary On-Premises Licences where the
principal business activity is the provision of
accommodation.
In addition to these licence classes, there are further
exemptions to these requirements for minors,
accommodation guests, persons attending a function,
and persons entering the premises for the sole
purpose of eating a meal in an area set aside
for dining.
Applications can also be made to the OLGR to
have part of the premises made exempt from the
requirements. To successfully apply for an exemption
on this basis, the relevant part of the premises must
be separate from the rest of the venue, and must be
able to be accessed directly without going through
the rest of the venue. These exemptions may include
areas such as gaming rooms, however it is important
to note that if a patron can access other parts of the
venue where liquor is served after entering through an
exempt area, the exemption will be declined.
OPERATION OF ID SCANNERS
Under the new laws, the ID scanners must be
operated or supervised by licensed crowd controllers
in order to screen patrons’ entry to the venue. The
OLGR has provided some flexibility to licensees where
ID scanning is mandatory by allowing for employees
whose role is only to scan a patron’s ID to operate
the scanner, provided that they do so under the
supervision of a licensed crowd controller.
Where the ID scan identifies a banned patron, a crowd
controller must remove the patron from the venue, and
any employee assisting in the scanning of a patron’s ID
must avoid all involvement in any physical interaction
between a patron and a crowd controller.
Should you require any assistance in relation to
your requirements under the new laws, please don’t
hesitate to contact me at Mullins Lawyers
on 07 3224 0230.