{"id":830443,"date":"2026-07-29T03:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830443\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T03:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:55:15","slug":"queensland-nightlife-tsar-john-collins-recommends-liquor-law-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830443\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland nightlife tsar John Collins recommends liquor law overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Queensland government has already ruled out a recommendation made by its night-life tsar to change holiday trading hours for licensed venues.<\/p>\n

The Moonside report by the state’s first nightlife commissioner, John “JC” Collins, was released today.<\/p>\n

The former Powderfinger bassist has been tasked with reinvigorating the sector ahead of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Brisbane’s nightlife commissioner John Collins, a former member of Powderfinger. (ABC News: Liz Pickering)<\/p>\n

He has recommended the state review its liquor laws \u2014 including restrictions on Christmas and Easter and late-night trading \u2014 and how it handles noise complaints.<\/p>\n

Collins said the state was “behind” in its regulations and put too much of a burden on venues.<\/p>\n

“For too long the narrative has been the nightlife is a nuisance, and been treated that way,” he said.<\/p>\n

The report, handed to government late last year, recommends updating Queensland’s decades-old liquor act, which restricts alcohol sales on Good Friday and Christmas Day and limits venues to six extended trading hours a year.<\/p>\n

Youth Minister Sam O’Connor said changes to Christmas and Easter trading were off the table.<\/p>\n

“We need to drive every day of the year, not just one particular day of trade,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s usually the only day for those businesses where their hospitality workers will know that everyone won’t be working at the same time, so you can have those staff get-togethers.”<\/p>\n

\"Brisbane<\/p>\n

Queensland is preparing to up its nightlife ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Games. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)<\/p>\n

The review also recommends the government revises “outdated” sound regulations, which “unfairly penalise venues”, and change the way sound is measured to “better balance community expectations with venue operations”.<\/p>\n

If adopted, five separate households would have to complain before compliance action was taken. Currently, a single noise complaint can trigger intervention.<\/p>\n

Liquor license discount<\/p>\n

The government has committed to the recommendation to make liquor licenses cheaper for live music venues.<\/p>\n

Licenses can cost tens of thousands of dollars a year, but there is no figure on that discount yet.<\/p>\n

“It will be a discount that will make a difference,” Mr O’Connor said.<\/p>\n

“And every dollar in the pocket of these venues, particularly these small venues, is more money that they can invest into having live music.”<\/p>\n

\"Silhouettes<\/p>\n

The review also recommends the government revises “outdated” sound regulations, which “unfairly penalise venues”. (Unsplash: Pim Myten)<\/p>\n

Big touring acts will also get a booking fee discount at state-owned venues if they include local acts in their line-up.<\/p>\n

‘We have to be open after 8:30’<\/p>\n

The report also looks at how to encourage more eateries to open later.<\/p>\n

This is not limited by regulations, but by people’s behaviour, Collins said.<\/p>\n

“Queenslanders are first up and first to bed, and that’s ok, but we’ve got to try to make the framework that gets people having dining experiences after 8 o’clock,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If we’re going to invite the world here, we have to be open after 8:30.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Queensland government has already ruled out a recommendation made by its night-life tsar to change holiday trading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23321,64,63,127975,96165,134,171593,4154,146778,254522,94,701,209736,32472],"class_list":["post-830443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alcohol","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bars","tag-drinking","tag-entertainment","tag-licensed-venues","tag-live-music","tag-nightlife","tag-powderfinger","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-trading-hours","tag-venues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}