Whackingday.com

I’m sure it will be overturned or prompt some idiot legislation, but this is worth a smile:

Michael Kirkpatrick was an extremely relieved man last night.

In January the Tasmanian Supreme Court had found that the former publican of the Tandara Motor Inn had breached duty of care when he gave motorbike keys back to a patron who then crashed the vehicle and died.

But yesterday the High Court overturned that ruling.
It decided that people who have liquor licenses “owe no general duty of care at common law requiring them to monitor and minimise the service of alcohol or to protect customers from the consequences of the alcohol they choose to consume”.

The new license holder at the Tandara Motor Inn, Michael Kirkwood, says it’s a victory for common sense.

People taking responsibility for their own actions. What a wonderful, strange concept in this day and age.

Predictably, the usual gang of Behaviour Commissars are outraged:

…Geoff Munro from the Australian Drug Foundation is also worried that the decision may weaken laws designed to minimise harm to drinkers….

…The whole idea was to try and make, change the culture of the way Australians drink but also change the way that some of these venues operate and to make them more family friendly. But I can just see them going back to the bad old days of, you know, drinking as much as you can…

Yeah, nothing says “bad old days” like letting people do what they like with their own time and own bodies. The horror of it….