The Australian Hotels Association NSW (AHA NSW) is the peak hospitality industry body in the state.

We represent 1800 licensed premises in NSW, from the bush pub to suburban hotel, major CBD entertainment complexes to four and five-star luxury hotels.

Our members employ more than 70,000 people and spend $20 million on training our staff each and every year.

Member hotels donate more than $25 million per year to charitable, community and sporting organisations in NSW – supporting 19,000 groups – and contribute a further $20 million per year to charitable organisations “in kind”.

Our hotels are the backbone of tourism in NSW and the beating hearts of their communities.

They host about 75,000 nights of live entertainment annually, serve 2.5 million meals to visitors and locals weekly, contribute more than a billion dollars in taxes and other levies each year and provide 14,000 pub accommodation beds in regional NSW.

The role of AHA NSW is to represent the interests of our members at all levels of Government and in the community.

The AHA NSW has a proven track record of developing evidence-based strategies and working with government and the community to resolve issues affecting our members.

We deliver tangible outcomes which improve the business environment in which our members operate and allow them to reach their full potential.

AHA NSW provides expert advice, development and professional expertise to our members in the hospitality sector.

We offer a range of services to our members including liquor and policing, legal and industrial relations, media, public relations and marketing and events.

The Association has a strong team of membership officers who regularly meet one-to-one with venue owners and operators at locations across NSW.

Although hotels have traded in New South Wales since the 18th century, the AHA NSW traces its origins back to 1873. Our long history has been played out against a background of ever-changing fortunes for both the hotel industry and the liquor trade, and mirrors the social changes which have revolutionised drinking habits and the Australian way of life.

The Beginning

In 1873, when the AHA began, the temperance movement was campaigning for a total ban on liquor in NSW.

The state had more than 2,400 licensed publicans at the time and believing only united action could overcome this threat to their livelihood, Charles Darton of The Occidental Hotel, Wynyard called on licensed victuallers to form an association to protect and defend its members and “…establish unity of feeling and action amongst them…”

The United Licensed Victuallers Association (ULVA) was soon formed with Darton as its first president. By October 1875 the Association had 427 members, five branches and 310 pounds income. The Association worked extremely hard during the general elections to secure the return of those sympathetic to the trade, and members believed it was their own activities which helped defeat the colony’s Parkes Government.

ULVA Uproar

Fast forward into the 20^th century and the decision of the State Government in July 1956 to legalise poker machines in non-proprietary clubs, the profits being taxed and the resultant revenue diverted to the hospital’s fund was a blow to the ULVA.

Hotel keepers seemed powerless to defend their trade against the now unrestricted competition from the clubs.

The ULVA reacted quickly. Recognising it would have to meet social changes head on, it commissioned Asher Joel Advertising to investigate both the hotel trade and consumer attitudes. Joel’s report, presented to then President Plasto in 1958, led to the creation of a new ULVA program to modernise our industry.

Central to the program was a new emphasis on tourism, improved standards of hotel service and management and a vigorous public relations campaign. The ULVA compiled and distributed a list of hotels and their tariffs (leading to the publication in 1962 of the AHA accommodation guide), represented the interests of residential hotels, and took part in co-operative arrangements with the Australian National Travel Association and other tourist industry bodies. Owners and licensees were also encouraged to refurbish hotels.

AHA NSW

In 1959 the ULVA became known as the NSW Branch of the Australian Hotels Association and, in 1960, it obtained registration as an industrial union of employers for the first time.

The following year, AHA NSW persuaded the State Government to enforce the use of badged glassware throughout NSW and achieved the abolition of the meal break in trading hours.

From 1963, hotels were able to trade straight through from 10.00am to 10.00pm. AHA NSW established its own trading company in 1961, set up a federal secretariat in 1964 and, by 1967, had moved to its own premises in Clarence Street, Sydney.

By the late 1960s the traditional ‘men only’ hotel was almost a thing of the past. It had been replaced by the sophisticated comforts of new and re-built hotels.

In 1970, Marjorie Hunter of The Cosmopolitan Hotel at the corner of Erskine and Clarence Streets, Sydney, became the first woman elected to AHA NSW.

Metric conversion was achieved smoothly, without the forecast difficulties in bottle and glass sizes. Close and cordial relationships were established with successive state governments and a spirit of co-operation allowed the Association to forge new bonds with representatives of registered clubs, the retail liquor trade and the tourism and accommodation industry. Hotel keepers responded generously to fundraising appeals on behalf of the Smith Family, the Olympic Federation and the victims of Cyclone Tracy.

Powerful and United

A major theme of the Association’s activities throughout the 1970s and beyond was the fight against what it saw as unfair trading conditions.

In 1974 the NSW Government proposed the introduction of a bed tax to finance a Tourism Development Assistance Fund. Although this particular legislation was withdrawn following strenuous efforts by AHA NSW and the Australian National Tourist Association, the industry remained affected by Government revenue-raising measures and there were almost annual rises in excise and taxes on beer, wine and spirits. From 1974, too, inflation became a major problem for the industry, prompting the Association to conduct a national survey on the costs and profitability of hotels.

Increasingly the hotel industry had to operate within an economic and legislative structure which was becoming more complex and the AHA once more had to find new skills and strategies to meet new problems.

Orderly marketing, which had for so long been the centre-piece of the Association’s program for industry stability, itself became the subject of attack under the federal government’s restrictive trade practices legislation.

Association activities during this period were also affected by the Prices Justification Tribunal, by the increasing complexity of industrial legislation, and by the fierce discounting of packaged liquor practised by a number of chain stores. The share of the liquor market held by hotels continued to decline and, at the same time, anomalies in the method of valuation meant hotels were paying considerably more for water rates than other licensed premises.

During the late 1970s governments also directed attention to the mounting road toll, leading to the introduction of random breath testing in 1982.

The AHA (NSW) took these challenges in its stride. The constitution was re-written to meet the requirements of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, a research and statistics officer was appointed, hoteliers were encouraged to take part in the Green Door, Bottle Mart and other co-operative buying schemes, parliamentarians were subjected to frequent lobbying on the shortcomings of the Liquor Act and other issues and Council members gave evidence to the 1979 Select Committee that enquired into liquor trading.

The Association also mounted its own campaigns advocating road safety and the exclusion of underage drinkers from hotels and a number of cost-saving schemes for members were introduced, including travel, insurance and superannuation services.

A 1977 Government decision allowed the payment of licence fees by instalment, Sunday trading was introduced in 1979 and hotels were even able to open two hours early on Anzac Day, 1980 without the dire consequences predicted – as usual – by the temperance lobby. A concerted campaign during 1981 prevented the imposition of higher excise duty in the federal budget of that year, a number of hoteliers were able to forestall rent increases.

By 1984 AHA NSW action had led to a reduction in water rates for metropolitan and Newcastle hotels. A new, simplified liquor act was introduced in 1982 meeting many of the demands of the Association, including compulsory training for hoteliers. The spread of PubTab and associated wagering and sports services helped secure the viability of many hotels as did the legislation, in 1985, of video games machines.

In 1997, gaming machines were legalized in hotels.

AHA NSW and the industry it represents would be almost unrecognisable to the far-sighted men who in 1873 established the (ULVA) of New South Wales. The enormous social changes that have occurred over the period have been accompanied not only by a revolution in the drinking and leisure habits of Australians but also by the rise of a new breed of hotelier and a growing awareness of the social and economic importance of the industry. But the readiness of the AHA (NSW) to defend the trade, the professionalism and unity of the industry, and, above all, the good reputation enjoyed by the hoteliers of New South Wales would be recognised and appreciated by those early organisers.