By Julian Bajkowski

The iconic New South Wales surfing mecca of Byron Bay has become the latest front in a growing push by community advocates and emergency services workers to cut after-midnight liquor trading hours to reduce incidents of alcohol fuelled violence that are giving the coastal town a bad name.

A weekend community forum held by the locally-formed ‘Last Drinks at 12’ group is reported to have packed out the town’s community centre as grass roots pressure for changes to state and local government liquor licensing regulations continues to gather momentum.

Byron’s Last Drinks at 12 group is pushing the Byron Shire Council and the NSW Government to stop licenced venues from serving alcohol in venues after midnight as the primary way to curb fights, brawls and other kinds of anti-social behaviour that many residents are ruining their town.

The push by emergency workers and community groups to rein-in elements of the liquor industry is steadily shaping-up as one of the big sleeper issues that the O’Farrell government will soon be forced to deal with as it tries to manage the fallout from a number of questionable regulatory moves made to appease special interests groups put in place by the former Labor government.

While Byron’s ‘Last Drinks at 12’ group is independent and locally formed, its goals and name are largely similar to the Last Drinks Coalition that is backed by unions representing police, paramedics, doctors, nurses and ambulance officers who say they are sick of dealing with violent and intoxicated people.

A key demand of the groups is the abolition of the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing that is seen as essentially politicised and reinstituting the previous model of the Liquor Court so that errant venues can be disciplined or shut down.

However politicians across Australia remain wary of picking a fight with liquor, gaming and clubs lobby after it launched a ferocious media and electorally-based campaign against the federal Labor government and its dalliance with introducing tighter controls on poker machines.

New South Wales Police in particular have expressed reservations over the concentration of late-trading venues in parts of Central Sydney including areas around George Street and the enduringly infamous district of Kings Cross.

It has been reported that on Sunday morning the NSW Riot and Public Order Squad was forced to break-up a series of fights at the Ivy nightclub on George street despite trading restrictions already being in place on the venue.

Police in NSW vehemently opposed the granting of a development application for the venue at the time of its construction on the basis that it was too big for a venue of its kind in that location.

The City of Sydney Council has also tried to modify the once dominant culture of 24 hour ‘beer barns’ by granting less expensive licences to so-called small bars and boutique venues and that trend towards serving wine, craft beers and cocktails in conjunction with food.

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