This Man is a Genius
Anglican Dean John Shepherd should be made Lord of Perth. I always knew that Anglicans were cooler than Catholics.
Check out the article from todays West:
Enliven city with pubs: top priest
One of WA’s most senior Anglican clergymen has contradicted conventional Christian philosophies to call for looser liquor licensing laws and deregulated retail trading hours as ways of enlivening Perth.
Perth Anglican Dean John Shepherd said yesterday Perth also needed more inner-city living to help create the “atmosphere and ambience” associated with more energetic cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.
“It’s all about the quality of people’s leisure time and we’ve somehow got it in our minds that if we make liquor less available we’ll improve our lifestyle,” the Very Rev. Dr Shepherd said. “But that assumes that people are going to misuse liquor. People are grown up, you can’t treat them as though they are juveniles.”
Asked if he believed his views were controversial given he was a religious leader, Dr Shepherd said they were just common sense.
“People use family values as the argument (against longer retail trading hours), somehow they got the idea that the family would be better catered for if the shops were shut,” he said. “I don’t see the logic of that at all, I would think that for many families they would get a buzz out of coming into the city after work.”
Dr Shepherd said he had long supported changes to the State’s liquor laws, particularly those that force patrons at some restaurants to buy a meal in order to be served alcohol.
“The current restrictions in liquor licensing laws and in shopping trading hours and the lack of buzz and atmosphere that comes with having more restaurants and arcades – it all adds up to an atmosphere and an ambience that people think is just not happening here,” he said.
Dr Shepherd said young professionals were increasingly looking for jobs in more energetic cities, where there was a better atmosphere and a plethora of restaurants and theatres open late into the night.
Perth suffered because there was a mass exodus from the city once the working day ended, partly due to a lack of attractions.
“At 5 o’clock everybody gets on a bus or a train or a car and drives out to the suburbs, where there’s probably more life in the Karrinyup shopping centre,” he said. “I think it’s disgraceful that there’s only one late night shopping night – the shops need to be open more.”
Dr Shepherd will take part in the Vision 2021 Forum at the Parmelia Hilton next month, where prominent WA residents will debate how the city can rid itself of the “dullsville” tag pinned on it by some critics.
Tourism Minister Mark McGowan and Australian Hotels Association executive director Bradley Woods were not available to comment on Dr Shepherd’s views.
Perth Deputy Lord Mayor Michael Sutherland said it was interesting that a religious leader wanted to relax liquor laws. He agreed with Dr Shepherd, saying WA’s liquor licensing laws were ludicrous.
