Help available to licensees
If a licensee wishes to meet to discuss their application, representatives of the Chief Health Officer are available. Such meetings are common.
At the meeting, representatives of the Chief Health Officer are pleased to hear about the vision for the intended liquor application and any other information the applicant wishes to share. The representatives are able to discuss general concerns based on features of the application that research indicates may have the potential to be higher risk for harm and, where appropriate, share strategies that other licensees have put in place to minimise the potential for alcohol-related harm.
At the meeting, representatives of the Chief Health Officer will not provide specific advice about an application or tell a licensee what they should or should not do to get their licence. This is because the Chief Health Officer is not the overall decision maker and there are many other factors that the Licensing Authority considers as part of the decision making process.
Applicants are also often contacted directly for clarification, if it is needed, regarding aspects of their written application.
Is there a list of references used by the Chief Health Officer?
Because the research is always changing and each application is different, there is no generic list of references used by the Chief Health Officer. The requirements under the Liquor Control Act require each case to be assessed on its merits, and as such, the Chief Health Officer may refer to research and information specific to the locality of the application, and general research papers which support the decision makers in considering the risk of harm and ill-health related to the application.
Why can’t the Chief Health Officer provide some generic guidelines that would be helpful to licensees?
The Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety (external site) publishes information, guidelines and policies to assist licence applicants. This includes information on public interest assessments (external site). The website also includes policies regarding extended trading permits, juveniles, harm minimisation and other information.
Given that each application and locality is different, it would be impossible to have a set of guidelines which encompasses all harm and ill-health considerations specific to each application. Each of the application characteristics can interact differently in terms of potential for harm and/or ill-health. For example, some of the characteristics of a venue itself, or the locality, may reduce the risk of harm in one application, while in another application may increase the risk of harm.
While licence applicants may address each point on a checklist, additional circumstances may be identified, as part of the investigation process, which increase the risk of harm and warrant an official submission by the Chief Health Officer.
Further assistance
The Chief Health Officer cannot provide specific advice about an application or tell a licensee what they should or should not do to get their licence. This is because the Chief Health Officer is not the overall decision maker and there are many other factors that the Director of Liquor Licensing considers as part of the decision-making process.
If a high-risk liquor licence application is identified, representatives of the Chief Health Officer will often discuss general concerns on features of the application that may have the potential to be higher risk for harm with the licensee prior to a formal submission to the licensing authority. Where appropriate, the representatives will share strategies that have been used previously which could be put in place to minimise the potential for alcohol-related harm. Applicants may also be contacted directly for clarification, if it is needed, regarding aspects of their written application.
Last reviewed: 19-12-2025