Would you give up your fingerprints for the sake of a late-night beer?
November 24, 2009
Coming to a nightclub near you
Image: NightKey
Our esteemed Queensland Premier hasn’t been increasingly nicknamed Nanna Bligh by press and citizens alike for no reason these last few months. For lovers of late-night drinking, the first nail in the coffin came with the introduction of the 3am lockout. Despite most rational observers predicting this would be a slippery-slide to ever more draconion measures, barely a peep was raised by the Queensland public, and fair enough too – judging by some of the online chatter around the issue, a fair proportion of Queenslanders would be only to happy to see bars and nightclubs shut at 10pm, or closed down altogether.
Sure enough, a 3am lockout was never going to be enough for those looking for the next band-aid solution to the ‘slaughter on the streets’ (another great piece of bluster found in the comments section of the Courier Mail online recently) that apparently is Fortitude Valley and anywhere else in the vicinity of a bar, pub or club late at night. A couple of weeks back the Queensland Police Union called for a mandatory 2am shutdown of licenced venues – a move that would be an utter embarrasment for a state capital that is trying to improve its credentials as the ‘New World City’, but unfortunately an all-too-likely scenario.
Unsurprisingly, this slippery-slope to who knows where doesn’t end there. In a ‘proactive’ move, the Katarzyna Group, the Bickle Family enterprise that owns Family, The Empire, Cloudland, The Press Club, The Corner Bar and Birdee Num Nums, will take your index finger fingerprint, scan your ID and take your photo upon entry to aforementioned venues from February next year. Clearly they are trying to jump the gun on potential legislation that will force them to do this anyway, and perhaps use it as leverage to argue against a 2am shutdown in the future. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t sit well with Thirsty Critters, and shouldn’t sit well with anyone who has the least concern about their liberties, their privacy and the prospect of nightclub owners collecting, storing and using that kind of information. Needless to say, despite a long history of frequenting Katarzyna venues, and throwing untold amounts of money across their bars, they will not be getting my ID, photo or fingerprints. Having lived in an epicentre of alcohol and gun violence – London – and never having been required to scan my ID, let alone take my fingerprint or my photo, I am sure Brisbane licencees and the Katarzyna group can find less intrusive ways to ensure the safety of their patrons.
Ihre Papiere, Bitte!
This has little do with enjoying a quality beer, or going on a brewery tour, you might say. True enough, as beer lovers we can still enjoy a beer at home, and visit MT Brewery, Burleigh Brewing & Eagle Heights Brewery with little restriction. But for how long? In a state where we’re on the cusp of giving up our identitities, drinking from plastic and getting kicked out at 2am, what is next? Tracking of alcohol consumed on premises via fingerprint? Restrictions on what you’re allowed to carry out of a bottle shop (via fingerprint)? A curtailing of maximum alcohol content in beer, like many US states? Who knows. But sitting by idly while draconion measures like fingerprinting and ID scanning are introduced does not bode well for the future.
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