The activist, the trespass notice and the bar with no beer

Wednesday, 26 June 2019

A relentless campaign against pokie machines has seen Colin Bridle, a teetotaler, trespassed from a pub with no beer that he's never even entered.

He was trespassed from the new local bar before it even opened. And he's a church elder who doesn't even drink. Oh, and the bar can't sell any beer.

The day after Nexus Wine and Cafe opened on Tokoroa's Bridge St earlier this month, community activist Colin Bridle was served a trespass notice by one of its owners.

It's thanks to Bridle the cafe cannot pour a pint: he has appealed a decision to grant them an alcohol licence, and they cannot serve any until the appeal is heard by the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority (ARLA).

Bridle is a well-known local anti-pokies activist, and his real target is the cafe's pokie machines, which he says cause great social harm in a deprived community. Despite not having an alcohol licence, Nexus has been given one for pokies - effectively making it the first coffee shop with pokies in New Zealand.

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The Nexus Wine bar and Cafe in Tokoroa has trespassed a local anti-pokies activist.

'If they can do this here, then they could do it anywhere: a shopping mall, a corner dairy, the waiting room of a doctor's surgery: it is completely unprecedented,' said Bridle of the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA)'s decision to grant a pokies licence.

The Nexus venue is owned by a large consortium of prominent local business people, including district councillor Bill Machen.

Machen said he understood Bridle had been trespassed from other bars because of his behaviour. 'He goes in there and he watches people. I think they've [the Nexus directors] taken the attitude that it is a subtle form of intimidation.

'He counts. He counts the people who are having a drink or playing the gambling machines - you don't want some righteous blimming person sitting behind you counting the number of times they push the buttons.'

Legally, venues with pokies must show the pokies are not their 'primary' business - activists like Bridle test this by visiting bars to see how many people are on the poker machines versus how many are eating and drinking.

'I've never set foot in the place,' Bridle said. 'The only reason they are doing this is because they don't want me to make observations to ensure they are keeping to the law. What do they have to hide?'

Bridle said he was tempted to go to the bar anyway, so he could be arrested and charged, but didn't want to embarrass his church community.

Bridle is well known locally for his opposition to a merger between three licensed clubs to create a 'super-casino' venue with 30 pokies on Bridge St. His fight delayed the merger long enough for all three to fall into financial problems and the merger to be cancelled.

The June minutes for a council-organised group for licensed premises, the Alcohol Accord, note members of one of those clubs, the Putaruru Services Club, asking if all local premises - bars, bottlestores and hotels - could issue a collective trespass notice against a 'certain local activist' to 'keep him out of premises and causing issues'.

John Anderson, the South Waikato District Council's environmental health manager, is recorded as saying 'this was not intended use of the collective trespass policy but they are able to trespass members of the public if they wished'.

Bridle said Nexus general manager Karen Forbes (who didn't return a call for comment) served him at his home.

The law is on Nexus' side: Grant Hewison, a lawyer who assists Bridle, said he had taken advice and under the Trespass Act there was no requirement for provocation or misbehaviour to issue a trespass notice. 'But it's certainly unusual: personally, I've never heard of someone being trespassed without first having entered the premises - especially not a cafe,' said Hewison.

There's also nothing to stop every pub in town from banning Bridle. 'I wouldn't have thought so, but then I didn't think this would have happened - and there is nothing to stop them doing it,' Bridle said.

Nexus is on the site of a pokie venue which closed last year. If a venue shuts for six months, it loses the right to host pokies. South Waikato District Council has a 'sinking lid' policy, which means once pokies are removed, they cannot ever be replaced.

However, three days before that cut-off, DIA granted Nexus a licence for 12 machines. Hewison said it was an example of a pattern of behaviour of DIA deliberately undermining 'sinking lid' policies that were supported by local communities.

Because Bridle's ARLA appeal against Nexus' liquor licence isn't likely to be heard before October, it has had to open selling just coffee and food. Machen, a former district licensing commissioner, sat through the original liquor licensing hearing, and said he felt Bridle had little grounds for appeal. 'He is just frustrating the process and I feel he is costing people jobs and money.'

The DIA, in a statement, said that after reviewing a business plan and making a site visit it was satisfied Nexus' 'primary activity' was as a restaurant. Nexus would supply quarterly finances to prove that was the case. DIA also said it had cut the number of machines from 18 to 12.

'The DIA must be satisfied that it's meeting the [primary purpose] requirements - I expect you would have to sell a lot of coffee,' said Hewison.

The DIA said it had 'worked collaboratively' with the Tokoroa Club - who will run the venue's pokies - because it had promised 75 per cent of pokie proceeds would return to the community.

Machen said the venue would be well run and would make significant community returns.