NIGHTCLUB owners are angered by what they say is an inequitable application of smoking regulations.
NIGHTCLUB owners are angered by what they say is an inequitable application of smoking regulations.
While clubs will be required to be 80 per cent smoke free from July this year, pubs will be exempt of change until December 2006.
Nightclub owners spoken to by WA Business News believe the changes will confuse consumers and create an anti-competitive environment.
For the WA Cabaret Owners Association the issue isn’t whether or not smoking should be allowed in enclosed public spaces, but rather that the change increases an already uneven playing field.
Cabaret venues have been 50 per cent smoke free since 2000 and, at the end of 2006, they will have to be 100 per cent smoke free.
At that time hotels will also be forced to have one room only for smoking.
According to the WA Cabaret Owners Association president David Wallace, the laws are inequitable.
“As an association we take the view that we don’t want to be involved in the smoking debate because we see smoking bans as inevitable,” he said.
“We take the view, however, that if you apply bans you apply them fairly and you don’t discriminate. We want to be treated the same. Why should hotels be treated differently?
“We’ve asked why and got several inconsistent answers from the government.”
Health Minister Jim McGinty said his government wanted smoke-free workplaces, including nightclubs and hotels, and was moving towards achieving that.
“The question is when, and the sooner the better,” he said.
The Government was forced to bring a planned review of smoking regulations forward from December 2007 to December 2005 after The Greens and Liberal Party refused to approve the regulatory change.
It’s expected the review will recommend total smoking bans in all enclosed public spaces.
But the review will come 18 months after Perth’s 54 cabaret licence holders are forced to implement significant changes.
Red Sea manager Ben Hamblin believes that, rightly or wrongly, both pubs and clubs should be under the same smoking restraints.
The Red Sea is located opposite the Subiaco Hotel, at which punters will continue to smoke, while from July Mr Hamblin will be forced to tell partons they can only smoke on the balcony.
“To have hotels exempt sounds quite unfair and sounds like the Australian Hotels Association has been throwing their weight around,” Mr Hamblin said.
“Everyone should be under the one legislation, and it’ll be a draconian one.”
Australian Council on Smoking and Health executive director Stephen Hall said the laws were discriminatory.
“What it does is sends mix messages, particularly to young people,” he said.
Mr Hall said the ACT, New South Wales and Queensland had adopted policies prohibiting smoking in hotels and pubs, which were taking place or were planned for implementation in 12 to 24 months.
But the Australian Hotels Association argues that providing time for both hoteliers and patrons to prepare for the change will minimise the impact to their operation.
“We want to provide advanced warning,” Australian Hotels Association executive director Bradley Woods told WA Business News.
“The industry has a view that while there are a reasonable proportion of smokers as patrons of their hotels they want to provide for them.”
But Mr Woods said many of his members were concerned that smoking bans would alienate a section of the market that frequent their venues.
Hyde Park Hotel owner Paul Higgins said laws to restrict smoking would have an economic impact on his hotel.
“It’ll be a disaster,” he said.
“It would have a huge economic impact.
“They did it over in Melbourne and they were down 20 per cent in revenue. Some of that would be pokies but still it has had an effect.”
But Mr Hall said recent research indicated there was little economic impact, and suggested that some pubs enjoyed an increase in revenues.
