New South Wales has been hogging all the anti-fun attention of late, courtesy of the lockout laws which have now been in place for 16 months (and have done pretty much nothing except migrate alcohol-fuelled violence to other areas.) But now, one council in Queensland is looking to take the fight against alcohol-fuelled violence one step further.

As part of Queensland’s new legislative plan to reduce alcohol-related violence, the State Government is looking at bringing breathalysers into the pubs and clubs of the Gold Coast.

Under the new law, police will be able to enter venues and breathalyse punters to check how drunk they are, allegedly using the blood-alcohol limits for drivers, as the standard. According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, this means that “drinking the equivalent of a sixpack of beer may soon be regarded as a big night out.”

Venues will face fines of up to $56 000 if police find punters who appear to be overly intoxicated.

While the fight against alcohol-related violence is an important and necessary one, there are so  many problems with this proposed legislation. Of course, the first and most obvious problem is that this kind of action can discourage people from going out to bars and clubs. Nobody wants to go to a club and have a few drinks, only to be threatened with a breathalyser. Bars are where people go to drink. That is the purpose of a bar: to drink. To drink quite a few drinks, in some cases. Police and the general public certainly don’t want people out drinking in parks or on the street – so why make it so uncomfortable to go to a bar?

If you’re having a drink, it’s important not to drive or behave recklessly or violently. But it’s ridiculous, and to quote The Daily Mail, bizarre and draconian, to suggest that people should be breathalysed while enjoying a night out. The amount you drink is not necessarily reflective of your behaviour, and of course, people have different limits – six drinks to one person can be extremely different to another person.

In an interview with the Gold Coast Bulletin, James Tweddell, owner of Broadbeach venue East said, “If someone wants to enjoy a night out, like a 40th, and the cops are going to walk in and breathalyse people at a venue, then that is ludicrous.”

Attorney General Yvette D’Ath says that breathalysing drinkers will “help them to build cases for prosecution for court.”

Other proposals within the legislation include bringing the lockout down from 3 am to 1 am, and for pubs to close at 3 am instead of the current 5 am deadline.