Thread: Just because you’re 18 doesn’t mean you can buy alcohol

I am assuming that despite all the other laws Pubs have to police they are still considered "Retailers or Shopkeepers"
Under QLD law any Retailer or Shopkeeper can refuse service to anybody at any time for any or no reason. If you have a reason you don't have to give it to the person being refused.
You do have to be careful that this won't lead to a discrimination suit but that's the law in QLD.

BTW If it had been me refusing service I would not have backed down & then given service, that's a bad look.

Today I had a bloke giving my checkout staff a hard time, I told him to pull his head in or nick off without his purchases. he chose to pull his head in.
Not to say your daughter gave the Bar Tender a hard time.

Jonesfam

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

Mia culpa. Joind navy aged 15. never ever had a problem buying a beer. Was asked what we were celebrating in while in America. It was my 18th birthday, Drinking age was 21!!! They told me but kept serving.

I'd call a caring but sexist bar tender in the first case.

Taking my kids in to pubs across Australia over a nice lap to WA and back to Vic saw two pubs kindly or interestingly tell me Lemon Lime and Bitters was a no no for the kids as bitters has a bit of Alcohol "44.7% alcohol by volume"

The few drops in a Lemon Lime and Bitters would seem a little PC to me, I asked for Lemon and Lime for the kids in those pubs. My parents are horrible as I was given Lemon Lime and Bitters as a kid prior to my Navy days

Double sarsparella me, on the chair next to the old man, in the public bar somewhere like Quilpie, Longreach, Hughenden, Ilfracombe. Have to admit I did not drink alcohol until after I joined the Navy , in Sydney. Aged about 17, at the Town hall Hotel.

From what I can understand, the minors should not have been in the pub unless they were being supervised by an adult, which isn't an 18 year old.
If the 18 year old was the designated driver the pub is entitled to refuse to serve her alcohol.
The pub actually did the wrong thing by serving two beers to a designated driver, it seems.
Seems tough, but that's how I read it.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

From what I can understand, the minors should not have been in the pub unless they were being supervised by an adult, which isn't an 18 year old.
If the 18 year old was the designated driver the pub is entitled to refuse to serve her alcohol.
The pub actually did the wrong thing by serving two beers to a designated driver, it seems.
Seems tough, but that's how I read it.

Well as far as I can see, Weeds has not said the other girls were minors, likewise he has not said his girl was a designated driver, or indeed if they had a car. I do agree it is a natural assumption but until Weeds clarifies this aspect some assumptions need to be removed - of course I may have missed the clarification.

Oh and an adult in law is anyone 18 and over so if the others were minors they were being supervised by an adult.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

From what I can understand, the minors should not have been in the pub unless they were being supervised by an adult, which isn't an 18 year old.
If the 18 year old was the designated driver the pub is entitled to refuse to serve her alcohol.
The pub actually did the wrong thing by serving two beers to a designated driver, it seems.
Seems tough, but that's how I read it.

Pretty sure 18 is classed as an adult.....in the RSA course material that I did yesterday only refers to minors ‘under the age of 18’ and those 18 or older

The whole designated driver bit I don’t get.......since when, when a group enters a license venue they have to tell the barman who is the designated driver....the DD has nothing to do with the establishment it something worked out between the punters.

I did post above two screen shots from the training I did yesterday...the second one was about having a meal in a licensed place and minors only need to be supervised by and adult as apposed to a guardian.

Oh and pretty sure in QLD you can drive from the age of 17.

Originally Posted by garrycol

Well as far as I can see, Weeds has not said the other girls were minors, likewise he has not said his girl was a designated driver, or indeed if they had a car. I do agree it is a natural assumption but until Weeds clarifies this aspect some assumptions need to be removed - of course I may have missed the clarification.

Oh and an adult in law is anyone 18 and over so if the others were minors they were being supervised by an adult.

Gary has nailed it, you’re all looking for everything based on assumption, stories from yester year.

After a chat to daughter last night it appears I have one piece of info wrong...the barman didn’t leave the bar to talk to anybody, he just said give me five.

Four girls, one 18, three 17

Two girls had licenses.....but that mean bugger all to the establishment.

It seems a grey area on whether the 17yo’s should have been in there but in the training I did, see screen shots above, it appears if having a meal they were quite rightly allowed in.

The girls where sober, no argumentative, and if somebody had of raised the voice they would have scampered off with their tails between the legs. Just four nice girls having a weekend away. They arrive at the pub at 11:30am and were the only punters, only decided to have a drink because meals weren’t served till 12pm

The main reason of the post was to highlight the service and what would have been my approach......

To all those that say service can be refused at anytime, just wondering........if you walked in at 11:30, sober, plonked your minor on a chair at a table, ordered a beer and was told no you should order a soft drink.....you would go yeah mate no problem?? Hang in based on the responses above you need to identify the DD and produce ID for the minor.

Well I’ve never had to any of the above when dropping in a pub in a small town....and I’ve had minors in tow....even when it’s just the bride an I guess what, I’ve never been asked who the DD was and believe it or not we have both been served alcohol

Plenty of time on the forum it’s mention to vote with your feet, exactly what I told the girls.....but given the next closest pub is 30km away they’ll return to this pub, next time three will be 18, wonder what the fourth will do. Maybe the fourth will drive them to the next pub.

Anyways to sum it up, the girls had a good pub experience in the end even if it started a bit awkward, I told the girls based on service I would have spend my money elsewhere.

Originally Posted by Eevo

pretty sure age discrinination is illegal.

Not when it is discrimination by law - alcohol age restriction.

Originally Posted by weeds

To all those that say service can be refused at anytime, just wondering........if you walked in at 11:30, sober, plonked your minor on a chair at a table, ordered a beer and was told no you should order a soft drink.....you would go yeah mate no problem?? Hang in based on the responses above you need to identify the DD and produce ID for the minor.

Spot on - my response would have been something along the lines of 'You ****ing kidding me right?' or something like that, followed by me leaving the place. The Girls did nothing wrong and shouldn't have been questioned. Just dumb in my book.