Sat, 22 Jun 2002

Hotels concerned new NT drug legislation will cause problems

Northern Territory licensees are predicting new drug legislation before the Parliament will cause major problems for hotels and clubs.

The Territory branch of the Australian Hotels Association says the legislation allows for licensed premises to be declared drug houses when licensees have no knowledge of illegal activities.

The association's Greg Weller says the Government has refused to discuss amending the new laws and his members are being forced to police them.

"The next step we'll have to take is look at how we can defend ourselves, how we can make sure that we aren't left open to the accusations of being a drug house and it may mean some really unpleasant activities," he said.

"It may mean we have to infringe on staff in terms of looking through their belongings when they start work each day.

"There's going to be an absolute privacy and industrial relations nightmare."