I believe that the report also showed that assaults increased in the time period up to 1 am. I understand why publicans rallied against the new rules - any business owner would surely oppose a limitation on their trade. If these rules are extended to Hamilton that will be the last nail in the coffin of the night-life in Newcastle.

hhhmm I think the community needs the longer drinking hours - how else will our population grow? We need irresponsible people putting on their beer goggles and procreating.

Jeff, as far as I'm aware the police attribute any incident which occurs in the vicinity of a pub as being an incident/assault at that pub whether the patron had been drinking there or not. It is very easy for police to change the procedure relating to allocation of assaults to pubs to show a reduction which furthers their argument for reduced hours. After the introduction of the reduced trading hours police presence was ramped up significantly which has a huge affect on the statistics of incidents in those later hours. If the police had that same presence before the change in hours as well as after we may have a comparible set of stats to look at. I'm in no way involved in the hospitality industry other than in a consumption basis but know Police and publicans. Statistics people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 35% of people know that.

The curfew doesn't go far enough I believe. All establishments in Newcastle should close at 9pm and any person found on the streets after 10pm should be locked up. This should further reduce violence in the inner city and provide a new level of safety for our residents. If that's a hardship our society needs to have a close look at why.

I can remember a herald headline stating that it was all our own collective fault . "WE CANT HOLD OUR GROG". All was well with 24/7 excess consumption -we as a society needed to be physically trained and conditioned to be able to tolerate more alcohol. I guess thats one view? An industry group embarressed ? Outside please for a moment?

Of course it's good that publicans are nervous! It's a no-brainer. I am a strong advocate for market economic forces being allowed to determine what happens in economic affairs ~ but this is a social issue, and all economists know that the market, on it's own, is imperfect (a blunt instrument) in moderating social issues. So we light a fire under the publicans, and ~ hey presto! That little intervention gives us the result we need. As a society, we intervene in illicit drug markets and distribution. We are obliged to do the same with grog. We can't just let the pubs and clubs run amok, and expect the police to clean it up on the street, and socisty in general to suffer the consequences. Sorry, owners of establishments. The mob has spoken.

Tony Brown has championed this issue at great personal cost, and not just financial. The arguments against the curfew are largely nonsensical. My personal favourite is that it discriminates against hospitality workers who want to go out after work. Should we ban saturday trading at shopping centres because it discriminates against those wishing to play weekend sport? How about banning daytime TV because it discriminates agianst 9-5 workers?The stats don't lie, and frankly 3am is late enough for anyone. If not, then have a private function at a private venue. I would rather "kill the nightlife" than see our residents continue to be assaulted and abused.

Jeff, This will kill night-life in Newcastle because young, sensible people who are enjoying a night out and may not be ready to call it a night will be forced to. From my personal experience it is a very small minority of people causing the problems on the streets (and a lot of them are underage!) I know plenty of people that don't even bother going out in Newcastle beacause of the new rules - and how hard it is to get a cab home (because of the new rules). By extending these rules to Hamilton, the number of clientele will plummet and the owners of these hotels will suffer.

On a side note, I am sick of the heavy-handed approach to reduce alcohol related problems. At many events I have recently attended, only mid-strength beer is available. Surely if the organisors of the event focused more on ensuring that people don't get too intoxicated, all attendees could enjoy any beverage they desire. These type of "quick-win" solutions may be effective, but they come at the expense of the enjoyment of the majority of sensible attendees. By the way, I wouldn't mind drinking mid-strength so much if it didn't taste as bad as it does.

Surely knowledge and the good use of our minds is what we must nurture to solve society’s problems? I get really depressed when I hear of young men head hitting trying to brain damage, trying to dumb all down with alcohol as a facilitator? Many dying by just a head hit along the way! I get a bit depressed thinking that I’m old enough to talk that way? We just can’t afford them and what helps them -they are just too expensive. Abundance has given a text book assessement and I would like to add that its a market failure if it doesnt pay its own way. What is the total flow on cost of dumbing down our young people by allowing them to self destruct with alcohol? One solution mooted was $12 a schooner, I'm all for that with a rebate back to normal price for minimal ethyl alcohol . the beer .. yuuumm. The toxic dumb down, brain damaging ethyl alcohol ... peeewwwwt and spew! Our bodies natural response to be being poisoned is to eject from all possible places. Ethyl alcohol and its excess is our enemy here nothing else! I can expect to hear from others on the point of wanting the ethyl alcohol and wanting it cheap and flowing?