RSA
In Australia, it is illegal to be drunk in a bar.
It’s true. I swear.
Much in the same fashion that anti-smoking measures are creeping in all over the world, anti-alcohol measures are slowly edging into Australia. All employees of any place that serves alcohol are required to take a one day course called Responsible Service of Alcohol, which covers such topics as how to spot drunks and the hefty fines that you may receive if you serve them. To the customer, what this means is drinking in Australia becomes some kind of secret service operation: you can get drunk provided that you don’t look drunk. Staggering, fumbling with change, and slurring your words are all instant tickets out the door. The bar staff become your enemy, all eager to remove you and save their arses from the inevitable police visit. And the police will visit; the bar I work in is sometimes invaded twice a night by uniformed officers, talking to customers, looking for drunks, and sometimes even demanding to see proof that all of the staff have undergone the all-important RSA training.
To the bar itself, RSA is an absolute minefield. You want to serve drinks, but those drinks will eventually get you shut down. You want to offer cheap drinks and deals to draw in the customers, but those deals make you look negligent. And even worse is the idea of a “duty of care”: if it looks like you didn’t take due care to make sure that someone you kicked out got home without incident, then you could be to blame. If they refuse a taxi, walk down the street, and get hit by a car, it could be your fault. Why? Because you sold him drinks, you vicious bastard. If they drive home drunk and crash into a tree, it’s on your back. Sure, he bought those drinks and knew he was driving, and sure, you didn’t know he had a car parked around the corner, but you made the dangerous drug that is alcohol available to him! Shame on you!
Even more precarious is the concept of “surrounding area”. If that poor sod gets hit by a car or a stray fist anywhere near your bar, your alcohol could be to blame. For the bar I work in, our surrounding area covers Circular Quay, and goes right down to Darling Harbour. If some drunk so much as trips over and grazes his knees anywhere around the biggest tourist areas in Sydney, there’s a good chance it’s our fault. As bars go, we’re pretty civilised, but we are surrounded by far worse places, and if their clientele so much as blink, the police look to us to see what could have done wrong this time.
The police don’t like my bar, see. We’re the only bar in our surrounding area that they haven’t busted for breach of licence, and we’re keen to keep it that way. Some nights the police will park up a van outside the front entrance and watch people as they roll out, just waiting for a fight to break out so they can ensure that this time, it’s definitely on us.
Drinking in Australia is hard work. There’s a lot to think about.