I was very pleased to see that Rod Bogaards’s guest post last week on the lockout laws was quoted in the parliamentary debate on the laws (see p. 216 of Hansard for Wednesday, 17 February):

Mr MANDER: No, it is not rubbish. The crackdown in the CBD has totally done that. I also quote Rod Bogaards, a former Productivity Commission director, who said—

The NSW reforms appear effective in reducing alcohol-fuelled violence, but they appear to do so by lowering patronage rather than improving individuals’ drinking behaviour.

This legislation does not go to the core issue of why people are doing this in the first place. You cannot legislate against stupidity, which is how these people who go out and cause these problems behave. We have to address the core issue.

As you would be aware, the Government was successful in passing the lockout laws, at a substantial cost including a commitment to Katter’s Australian Party to invest in regional Queensland, potentially in some dubious projects. At least there will be an independent review of the laws in July 2018, but it would be good to have an interim review much earlier than that.

A QEW post was also quoted in the Courier-Mail (p. 9) on Friday— this time, my post on the January ABS labour force data (see image below).