Mr BAYLEY – Minister, the government’s Fiscal Strategy includes a target of greater than 37 per cent of total general government sector own‑source revenue as a percentage of total expenditure. It’s currently sitting at 32 per cent, so it’s 5 per cent down. Not only are you not enacting any of Mr Eslake’s recommendations, but you issued a third round of land tax cuts. What is your plan to improve this performance indicator, or are you content to continuously underperform against your own fiscal targets?
Mr STREET – We do see the need to grow own revenue as a percentage of the overall budget, Mr Bayley. That’s why we need to make sensible and considered decisions about where we forgo revenue. They need to be considered in the same light as new expenditure decisions. I would imagine that any decision about forgoing revenue would go through the budget committee process just like any consideration of increased expenditure. We know the volatility of the GST receipts that we receive each year. That’s why we need to work towards that 37 per cent to give ourselves some more surety and we’re absolutely committed to doing that.
Mr SWAIN – I could add to that if you would like, minister. In the current Budget forward Estimates there is a GST reduction that is not quite offset by an uplift in own state taxation in the budget, but it’s reasonably close. It’s 390[39?] versus 33-40, from memory. In the Budget already, there is a trend upwards from 30.4 per cent in 2023-24 own‑source revenue outcome to 36 per cent in 2027-28. With the current tax settings and exemptions, it is trending back towards that 37 per cent level.
Mr BAYLEY – Have all your past trending forecasts always come to fruition on review or when you get to – ?
Mr SWAIN – I wouldn’t want to mislead you in that regard. I mean, the budget is an estimate. The elements of tax revenue have various degrees of accuracy in terms of time – some of them are moved around more than others so and the compliance sheet is one of the ones that moves around, for example. They are a combination of projections and forecasts.
Mr BAYLEY – I have a bit of a niche question in relation to the coronial inquest into Robert Bo Xu and Jarrod Robert Davies. The recommendations in this report crossed over a couple of portfolios and there’s a few relating to liquor and gaming. Are you able to outline the government’s position on the recommendations and any progress on implementing them and, specifically, that the Commissioner for Licensing give consideration to attaching a condition to a venue’s out‑of‑hours permit requiring the implementation of real‑time CCTV monitoring?
The second one is the Liquor and Gaming Branch, Tasmania Police and CBOS so that regular random spot checks of licensed premises are conducted, any potential breaches are fully investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted, and any proper disciplinary action is then taken against the licensee under the Liquor Licensing Act 1990 or against the licensee or crowd controller under the Security and Investigation Agents Act. I know that’s pretty specific. I apologise.
Mr STREET – That’s okay. I will pass to Jonathon. Obviously, I’m aware of the tragedy that led to the coronial inquest. The details of the response I’ll leave to Jonathon.
Mr ROOT – Just to clarify my response, I am the Commissioner for Licensing. We have taken on board the Coroner’s findings and I did give evidence to that particular coronial inquiry. We have done a lot of work with police to improve both our communications on incidents that might require liquor disciplinary action, noting that police have a role under the Liquor Licensing Act as well. We have been undertaking dual inspections with police and in the past have done it with CBOS. We’ve stepped up that activity and I’ve met with Adrian Bodnar as the relevant senior police officer and discussed the findings with him.
With regard to the conditioning, that is certainly a recommendation that I’m keeping in my mind when I’m looking at conditioning. It’s a fairly narrow set of venues where it might be relevant because, essentially, the requirement is not simply to have CCTV, which I have imposed on all venues that trade past 2 a.m. due to the that higher risk, and I do apply to other venues in response to disciplinary action. If there’s a badly performing venue that doesn’t have CCTV, I will often require that to be in place. The real‑time monitoring is a step up from that and, in my view, is not something that I would do unilaterally for all venues, but in specific circumstances that may be appropriate and I’m bearing that in mind. I haven’t done it to this stage but certainly it’s a recommendation that I’m taking on board. We do have quite a rigorous compliance program and there are regular disciplinary actions taken against licensees where they breach the act.
Mr BAYLEY – Just as a follow-up, if I may, I understand that you can – while we’ve got the commissioner here – order alcohol through Uber Eats, through BWS. I’m interested in your take on that, minister and commissioner, on that, as a notion in the context of the responsible service of alcohol. It seems like a relatively unprecedented and new initiative and capacity in terms of getting alcohol.
Mr STREET – I’ll defer to Jonathon, but I would say at a high level that we’ve had an initial discussion about a review of the liquor licensing provisions; the fact that we’ve got such significant changes in the market in how you can access alcohol is one of the things that has prompted these.
Mr BAYLEY – Is this one of the things that you’ll look at?
Mr STREET – It’s one of the things that has prompted the initial discussion with the department around a potential review. There are significant technological changes that are allowing different service of alcohol that would never have been foreseen under the current arrangements as well. I don’t know whether Jonathon wants to add anything to that.
Mr ROOT – I’d simply confirm what the minister has said there. The act is fairly old now and didn’t envisage particularly the same-day delivery aspect of liquor sales, which does increase the risk and does bring into question the sorts of controls that are needed around who can deliver, to whom and what controls you should have around it. There are controls in the act around online sale of liquor currently; we do apply those and certainly I’ve conditioned licences that are doing same-day delivery to try to minimise the risk of harm there. But it’s always been the case that the capacity to do this has sat within the act because there’s nothing that really restricts it particularly. It’s an issue on the minds of all regulators around Australia, and I know there’s been action in other jurisdictions to put in place initiatives around the hours at which it can occur, how it should be done and what training should be provided to delivery drivers and so on.
