Legislators pave way for New Year’s Eve parties

(CNS): The government pushed through amendments to the music and dance law on Monday, paving the way for liquor license holders to apply to the board for extensions on New Year’s Eve, which this year falls on a Saturday night. The law fell foul of the 21 day constitutional requirement, however, and the opposition leader said that regardless of whether he supported the change or not, the last minute amendment was another example of government by crisis, given that everyone had known for some time that the celebrations would be impacted by the law. Miller abstained from taking part in the debate because the bill was unconstitutional.

The premier admitted that the decision to change the law was late in the day but was simply down to a mix up as the government was unaware that the board did not have the discretion to grant extensions. Once government recognised the problem it moved to change the law to deal with the issue.

Although it had been anticipated that the government was moving to give the board the discretion to allow extensions on any holiday that fell on a Saturday night Sunday morning or on Good Friday, the amendment to the bill was in the end altered at committee stage to limit the change just to New Year’s Eve to assist the tourism sector. The law, which restricts the combination of music and booze and in the same place on a Sunday, remains unaltered.

Once the governor assents to the bill, the liquor board will need to convene a board meeting as it could face hundreds of applications for extensions on what is one of the busiest nights of the year in the hospitality business.

During the bill debate Rolston Anglin said there was no reason why the bill should not be supported by everyone as it was for only one night, once every seven years and was to help the tourism sector, as he called on his legislative colleagues to end the year in unity on at least this one thing. Anglin also noted that as the numbers of people who worshipped on Saturday and not Sunday grew, government had to be careful of not placing more value on one Sabbath over another.

Although, Anthony Eden had objected to the change in principle, the opposition members and Miller objected to the last minute nature of the change rather than the change itself.
During the heated debate following government’s suspension of the order that requires a 21 day public consultation period, the premier accused the opposition of being some of the worst drinkers and accused them of drinking after hours.  Bush added that there was nothing wrong with dancing as it was good exercise as he noted that the government was only giving the discretion to the board to let them decide.

The premier also said he believed the existing Sunday trading laws were hypocritical as people were buying fuel and things in the gas station on Sundays but other shops couldn’t open.

“It’s a hypocritical law and we should change it,” he said.