Pilbara Liquor Accord welcomes banned drinkers register expansion but ‘more information needed’

The Pilbara Liquor Accord has welcomed the expansion of the banned drinkers register but said more information and local consultation was needed to ensure the system’s long-term viability. The banned drinkers’ register was launched in the Pilbara in December 2020 in an attempt to tackle alcohol-related harm by targeting problem drinkers and restricting access to takeaway alcohol. By September 2022, just 60 people had been placed on the Pilbara register, while 85 people had been added to the list in the Kimberley. In the Goldfields region, with a population of 57,000, just 29 people were on the list. On March 2, the State Government flagged new legislation which would see the register expanded to the crime-plagued Carnarvon, and a substantial overhaul that hopes to make it easier to place individuals who engage in alcohol-fuelled violence onto the preventative scheme. Changes announced by Mr Whitby include allowing police and the courts to register individuals for any alcohol-related offending — including violence and drink driving — rather than just offences that occur in or near licensed premises. Health professionals will also be permitted to refer people for registration and online retailers will now be required to check the BDR before proceeding with a sale. Police will also be handed the power to seize and dispose of alcohol in the possession of someone on the register. All of the amendments will be contained in updated legislation that will be introduced to Parliament “as soon as possible”. Speaking to Pilbara News following the announcement, Pilbara Liquor Accord chair Bart Parsons welcomed the move but said more details needed to be released before the legislation was introduced. “I think it’s a step in the right direction, and something we’ve all been calling for since the very start of the trial,” he said. “We knew from the get-go that it was too hard to get people on the list. In the Pilbara we estimate problem drinkers to be around three to five per cent of the total population. “That would mean we’d probably want to see around 2500 people on the register at least — the figures haven’t exactly shown that.” Mr Parson said despite being integral to the initial trial of the register, which he worked closely with former Racing and Gaming Minister Paul Papalia to implement, he had been left largely in the dark on the updated legislation. “Unfortunately we have run into a situation where a lot of the decision-making is being done from Perth, without really listening to the local community,” he said. “I actually didn’t know these changes were even happening until (Pilbara News) messaged this morning,” he said. “I would encourage those decision-makers to lift their game when it comes to engaging with us on a local level — we are the people who deal with these things day in, day out.” Mr Parson said many local stakeholders held concern for the legislation’s potential to infringe on non-problem drinkers’ rights. “We really need more detail about the criteria surrounding what would constitute a bannable offence. We don’t want to be targeting people who just make a silly mistake on a night out drinking — which I’m sure we’ve all done at some point in our life,” he said. “We also need to ensure our police are across the changes and their new powers. It’s worrying to me that I’ve already had a few local police reach out to ask if I knew about the changes. “How can they announce these things when the local cops and liquor accord didn’t even know.” He also called for a roadmap for wrap-around services for those who are placed on the list — something which was promised at the start of the trial in 2020, but had so-far not come to fruition, according to Mr Parsons.