Start a liquor forum or liquor accord

Liquor forums and accords help address alcohol-related harm in local areas.

Liquor forums

A liquor forum is a meeting between a local group of licensees, police, council and representatives from the liquor industry.

The group meets regularly to discuss and address issues of alcohol-related harm that affect their local area.

Read about joining your local liquor forum.

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Establish a liquor forum

Victoria Police or local councils usually initiate starting or reactivating a liquor forum.

If your area is not on the list of Victorian liquor forums, contact local police to check if they plan to set one up.

If you need help starting a liquor forum, email us for advice at lcv.education@justice.vic.gov.au.

You can use these templates to help get started:

Letter of invitation - establishing a liquor forum Word 26.5 KB (opens in a new window)

Liquor forum membership application - form Word 24.68 KB (opens in a new window)

Letter of invitation - joining executive committee or working group Word 30 KB (opens in a new window)

Liquor forum flyer PDF 48.48 KB (opens in a new window)

Media release - structure and tips Word 35.5 KB (opens in a new window)

Hold a liquor forum meeting

Agendas and minutes

Agendas prepare members for meetings and promote guest speakers. They also help keep the meeting on schedule.

Liquor forum agenda - template Word 46.5 KB (opens in a new window)

Minutes are a useful record and summary for members unable to attend. Try to at least capture:

an overview of the discussion
who attended
any action items and their due-by date.

Liquor forum attendance register - template Word 44.5 KB (opens in a new window)

Liquor forum minutes - template Word 51 KB (opens in a new window)

Topics and guest speakers

Listening and encouraging open discussion during meetings can help identify topics that members might find interesting.

You can ask local organisations to speak or offer to host them online.

Topics and speakers could include:

liquor licensing issues: intoxication, drink spiking, minors, advertising and promotions, how to stay inspection ready, checking ID, crowd controllers and security, noise and amenity, dealing with difficult customers. Request a Liquor Control Victoria speaker by emailing lcv.education@justice.vic.gov.au.
armed robbery and sexual assault prevention: Victoria Police specialised units
incidents or policies that reduce alcohol-related harm: encourage forum members to share. Invite a licensee, or police, from a neighbouring town or suburb to present.
keeping licensed venues and customers safe: local WorkSafe officer or you could play a recorded WorkSafe webinar
emergency evacuation and fire safety: local fire brigade
drug and alcohol support programs (how licensed venues can help promote them): local state-funded alcohol and drug treatment programs
planning permits (what they allow you to do, how to get or change one): local council planning department
major events in your area (impacts of the event and working together with licensed venues): event organiser or committee member.
potential campaigns or promotions the liquor forum could start, such as designated driver programs
how the forum can get involved in community projects, not necessarily alcohol related.
products or services that could benefit members and their business, such as preferred suppliers or contractors.
training opportunities such as first aid, Responsible Service of Alcohol or handling difficult customers.

Member stickers

Free stickers are available for liquor forum members.

You can display them in venue windows to let customers and the community know your venue is a member of the local liquor forum.

To request free stickers, email us at lcv.education@justice.vic.gov.au.

Example member sticker

Liquor Forum Member sticker: Working together to keep our community safe

Liquor accords

A forum can work together to agree on any specific aims, actions, objectives and strategies for addressing local alcohol-related problems. It can formalise these in a document called a liquor accord.

A liquor accord document:

is not required, so not all liquor forums have one
must be approved by Victoria Police and Liquor Control Victoria.

Getting a liquor accord approved

Follow these steps to get a liquor accord document approved.

Use our template to create your document or, if you create your own, include as a minimum:

author, document version number, expiry date
table of contents
LCV accord banning guidelines (must be included)
list of proposed members.

Liquor accord document - template Word 69.74 KB (opens in a new window)

Get the local police licensing inspector to complete this statement:

I [name of the inspector] Licensing Inspector of [name of the police station] have read and approve the draft [name of the accord] Liquor Accord. [Signature and contact details]

Email the statement and your draft accord document to lcv.education@justice.vic.gov.au.
Allow up to 4 weeks for us to check your document and request changes or ask for more information.
Once approved, we send you a confirmation email and copy of the approved accord.

These templates may also be useful when developing an accord:

Liquor accord member register - template Excel 19.11 KB (opens in a new window)

Liquor accord certificate - template Word 24.16 KB (opens in a new window)

Liquor accord incident report - template PDF 77.25 KB (opens in a new window)

Becoming an accord member

Once the document is approved, licensees can sign up to become a member of that liquor accord.

Accord members have the power to ban difficult customers from all venues who are accord members.

If licensees decide not to join as an accord member they:

can still attend liquor forum meetings
cannot participate in banning or receive information about banned customers.

Banning a customer

Members of a liquor accord may decide to ban a difficult customer from their venues.

The accord must only issue a ban:

to minimise harm from the customer’s behaviour
if the behaviour occurred in and around licensed venues
for no longer than 12 months.

It is against the law to use or disclose any information you have received about banned customers, except for the purpose of enforcing a liquor accord ban.

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Develop a banning policy

Accord members must agree on a banning policy that details the process, including the customer’s right to review the ban.

We do not approve your banning policy or require you to submit it to us.

Liquor accord members may want to display a poster promoting the banning policy. It may help deter unwanted behaviour.

Notice to patrons poster promoting banned patron policy Word 24 KB (opens in a new window)

Keep an incident register

Incident registers may help if you are part of a liquor accord considering banning a difficult customer.

You can use our template to record harmful-behaviour incidents in a consistent way:

Liquor inspectors may ask to see your incident register.

If you keep a digital register, make sure staff know how to access it immediately in case it’s needed during an inspection.

Notify a banned person

If you ban a customer, you must inform them in writing and include:

the details of the ban, including a list of venues they are banned from and the start and end date of the ban
that the ban will be enforced by all venues in the liquor accord for the agreed period
that they have the right to request a review of the ban. Use these templates as needed:

Liquor accord patron proposed ban notification - letter Word 31 KB (opens in a new window)

Liquor accord patron ban notification – letter Word 32 KB (opens in a new window)

Liquor accord patron end of ban notification - letter Word 32 KB (opens in a new window)

Ban customers across multiple accords

Many liquor accords in regional areas may be located close to each other.

If these accords want to ban a customer across all member venues:

they need to develop and get a new accord document approved
members of existing accords would sign up as members of the new merged accord
the new accord would have its own banning policy
licensees could continue to meet regularly in their local area and potentially have one meeting per year with all members. To get help with merging accords, email us at lcv.education@justice.vic.gov.au.

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Start a liquor forum or liquor accord

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Liquor forums

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Example member sticker

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Getting a liquor accord approved

Becoming an accord member

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