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Dealing the drink.

Article Excerpt
In June, a Melbourne municipal council won a case against a liquor retailer's license application on the basis of the harm it would cause to the community. This was a landmark judgement since National Competition Council (NCC) requirements severely limit the ability of local and state authorities to deny new entrants into the alcohol retail market. Regardless of overwhelming evidence that outlet density is a major factor in alcohol-related violence and other negative outcomes, state governments have been threatened with huge financial sanctions if they try to restrict new licences. Restriction is considered a threat to market competition.

Local community joy at the Liquor Licensing Director's decision was short lived, however, because of a related decision taken a few weeks later. In the first case, the family-owned business Cheapa Wines was denied a licence because of its intention to sell cheap alcohol in the Preston area, which already has sixty-five--yes, sixty-five--licensed alcohol outlets. However, when the council and other interested groups made the same arguments against a license application by the Woolworths-owned Dan Murphy's, Liquor Licensing Director Sue Maclellan dismissed them, granting Woolworths' application to establish an outlet only a stone's throw away from its existing alcohol supermarket.

When Maclellan dismissed Cheapa Wines' application, she wrote: 'This was an application...

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