CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
FORGET the lock-out laws, forget the ID scanners – the key to lowering drunken assaults in premier Queensland nightlife strips is to provide a safe space for macho Australians with poor emotional intelligence to punch on face to face.
It’s just one of the new measures to be trialled by the State Government to stop the rates of boozy punch-ons that have always existed in entertainment precincts that host over 5-8 thousand people a night.
Working closely the with advisors from the Katter Party, QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says that stationing official referees trained in adjudicating combat sport at cab ranks around the state has drastically changed the way tatted up roid boys talk to one another.
“By placing referees in some of the more violent hot spots around Queensland, we have created a culture of accountability for frustrated young men that have failed to meet a woman on their night out and now have to wait 45 minutes for a cab home” says the Premier.
“The stigma surrounding one punch assaults has been really taken into account, as young men and particularly rough women now realise that any act of confrontation could very well result in ten rounds on the pebbles”
The referees are identifiable by their white Oxford shirt, black slacks, black leather shoes and black bow tie – in some of the more dicey cab ranks, latex gloves are sometimes worn for sanitary reasons.
Prominent referee postings include eighteen cab ranks in Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley, Boundary Street in West End, The Strand in Townsville and pretty much every regional night club in between.
