Statewide ban on smoking in pubs and clubs approaches 10th anniversary

The ban came in on July 1, 2007, amid concerns of falling clientele, job cuts, gaming and tax revenue losses, and costly renovations.

And while some of those fears may have been realised, these locals say the benefits have been cleaner air, better food and more family-friendly vibes.

Then-Tamworth-based musician Matt Scullion told The Leader 10 years ago he and his industry colleagues were worried venues would cut back on entertainment if the ban hit their income too hard. 

“If the pub’s not making as much money, they have to do the proper business thing and start cutting back,” he said at the time.

“The first thing you start cutting back on is the entertainment. I do feel for the publicans, because at the end of the day they’re just trying to run a business.”

Yesterday he said that, fortunately, “it didn’t eventuate”.

“Patronage didn’t drop off; people just got used to going into different sections to have a cigarette, or sometimes they might spend the whole night in the beer garden,” he said.

“I didn’t see a fall of numbers.”

What he has seen, though, is the difference the ban has made to people like him who work in that environment.

Mr Scullion has been back in Australia for 12 months, after spending about six years working in Nashville.

He said it was interesting to compare the countries’ different regulations and the effect on him as a musician, and it was “absolutely” the right decision to change the legislation.

“I did a lot of gigs in Nashville and over there everybody smokes in bars,” he said.

“I can tell you, you do start to lose your voice, and I noticed as soon as I came back to Australia it was so much cleaner to play.”

Mr Scullion said he’d noticed pubs were now “more family-oriented, and there’s a lot more concentration into food and restaurants”. However, he said he didn’t believe that was a direct result of the ban.

Tamworth & District Liquor Accord chairman and Albert Hotel licensee Nick Weir was at the Imperial Hotel and remembers the “outcry”.

“But they’ve probably done the right thing in terms of society and in terms of layering the regulations and slowly [introducing them],” he said.

“I don’t know if that would be the opinion the venues that had to pay for all the renovations to their premises ...

“In the short term I’m sure it hurt some places; in the long term probably not, because we’ve learnt to adjust – pub-goers and pub owners.”

Mr Weir said one positive spin-off was that pubs and clubs had lifted their food game – and that was as it should be: “If you’re not very good at food, you don’t have a very focused business.”

Thomas Cocking has been Manilla’s Royal Hotel licensee for 14 years and said his business had suffered “minimal losses, if anything”.

“I think everybody was up to speed with it … they knew what was coming and when it was coming,” he said.

He said he hadn’t needed to spend much money to comply with the new laws, and recounts how patron habits simply changed with the times.

Before the ban, his indoor smoking and non-smoking areas were bars across from each other. After the ban, smoking was restricted to the beer garden.

“But the funny thing is, the non-smokers who like to sit and talk followed the other guys [smokers] from bar to bar and to the beer garden,” Mr Cocking said.

Cancer Council NSW northern region community engagement manager Dimity Betts said there had been “significant decreases in smoking”, particularly during the past decade.

"I think that’s a really important thing to highlight on World No Tobacco Day, because there has been changes in the demand for cigarettes,” she said.

"A lot of things like the smoke-free CBD, putting cigarettes out of sight in retail outlets, banning it in hospitals and taxi-ranks and bus stations, for example, have helped to decrease the rate.”

The Leader contacted the Australian Hotels Association NSW and several clubs in the region for comment, but their spokespeople were not available.

Editorial: Locals ‘suck up’ ban on smoking in venues

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