Civic rejects AHA policy
The ongoing debate over smoke-free pubs has prompted the owners of The Civic Hotel in Inglewood to revoke their membership of the Australian Hotels Association.
According to assistant manager Peter Waters, the AHA is wrong in its assessment of the pub-going market and, based on a number of the association’s recent policy announcements, The Civic withdrew its membership a year ago.
“The AHA has the attitude of how it was 15 years ago when the public bar was the mainstay of trade,” Mr Waters said. “To a certain extent they [AHA] do a lot of good, but instead of coming out and being proactive about smoking bans, they dug their heels in.
“We left because of a number of their policies, like AHA pubs giving out free water.
“We don’t give out free drinks, we don’t have happy hour.”
Mr Waters said it was about that time (a year ago) the AHA had sent out letters asking for members to support its policy against the smoking bans.
AHA executive director Bradley Woods said: “The Civic Hotel never raised its view of smoking with the AHA. They resigned because they disagreed with our policy that hotels should provide free water to their patrons.” .
While the hotel still provided a bar area for smokers to light up, it would more than likely become smoke free over time.
Mr Waters, a smoker, said there was the potential for pubs to grow their business by implementing smoking bans.
“I’ve seen a huge change in the 15 years I’ve been here,” he said.
“There are some pubs that do have the public bar and that will hurt them, but they are not catering to the general public.
“I think going non-smoking will bring out an untapped market.”