Drink Safe cut and continued
The Queensland Government has decided to continue its trial of Drink Safe Precincts around the state, continuing a three-year effort to crack-down on alcohol-fuelled violence.
The State’s Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie says the trial, which has been extended several times, will now continue into mid-2014.
Mr Bleijie says the scheme is “anecdotally showing some evidence of signs of success,” and that is enough for a continuation.
“We didn't want to cut and run - we wanted to make sure that we continued the trial to at least be sure we get better outcomes for the future,” Bleijie said.
As part of the trial’s extension $500,000 will go to community groups and recovery centres for their increased workload in the festive season.
Funding for extra police officers on the beat in the precincts has been discontinued, according to Police Union president Ian Leavers, who say “cancelling the drink safe funding for police is a short-sighted and irresponsible approach by the State Government.”
Mr Leavers’ sentiments were echoed by Gold Coast Police chief superintendant Steve Hollands: “We're looking at the resources that we have and we're organising those to ensure that this precinct here is appropriately policed,” he said.