TOUGHER smoking restrictions are set to come into effect in Wagga pubs and clubs from Monday, but venue owners don’t think the latest regulations will change much.
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The new regulations mean, from Monday, smoking will be banned in commercial outdoor dining areas during hours food is being served, while smoking will also be banned within four metres of entryways.
William Farrer Hotel publican David Barnhill contends the changes will make life harder for smokers at some venues, but he doesn’t anticipate much changing at his pub as a result of the restrictions.
“Every venue is set up differently to cater for smokers, it’s the nature of the beast – every venue tries to cater for them as best they can,” he said.
“We haven’t had to change anything, but we’re going to utilise signage at certain times in our beer garden area where people dine (and) there’s going to be certain restrictions.”
Mr Barnhill said while it was important to cater for smokers as well, the changes would lead to a more pleasant dining experience for pubgoers.
Over at the Wagga RSL, it’s a similar story of not much changing as a result of the new smoking regulations coming into effect.
“We don’t actually have areas where there’s food and smoking together anyway and the four-metre thing around your front entrance, we’ve got that covered,” RSL general manager Andrew Bell said.
“We’ve been operating under those rough guidelines for quite a while.”
The new guidelines have been criticised by Wagga Business Chamber president Tim Rose, who said the growing amount of red tape surrounding smoking restrictions was confusing business owners.
“If you don’t want people to smoke, ban the bloody stuff,” he said.
“Don’t just try and effect the ban through a thousand regulatory changes. If you’re not going to ban it, get out of the road and stop trying to regulate it because it’s confusing.”
The last changes to smoking laws in pubs and clubs, which banned smokers from enclosed public areas in licenced venues, took a bit of adjustment but Mr Rose doesn’t think the regulatory change will be as painful this time.
“There was an initial hit (last time) but everyone’s kind of got used to the new laws,” he said.
“It’s going to be painful and as usual business is going to cop the pain, but as usual we’re going to adapt and overcome.”
