Changes to Law - Melbourne Violence Fuelled by Alcohol

After the Gold Rush, Melbourne underwent a upgrading of buildings, which improved appearance and erected new structures such as pubs. At one stage, it was as if Melbourne would finish up with a pub on every corner. Drunkenness was still increasing in Melbourne, partially because there were so many licensed houses. Due to this drunkenness, violence was an occurrence. Melbourne still reports of violence fuelled by alcohol every night.

Alcohol has many health effects on the human body. In the short terms, alcohol can have instant effects from just drinking two or so standard drinks, taking in account that this varies from one person to another: one can feel relaxed and less self-conscious, their concentration decreases, have mumbled speech and compromised vision, coordination and judgement are highly affected and et cetera. By drinking, one of these effects could change another individual's life, completely. In this case, police requested for witnesses to a savage unprovoked attack at Graham Street hotel in which a man's face was cut with a meat cleaver, in what could have been a mistaken identity. This man suffered with life-threatening lacerations, which included fragmented bones, nerve and eye damage, as a result of the attack. In another episode, James Macready-Bryan was attacked three years ago on his 20th birthday from city violence and this has caused him brain damage and he is now wheelchair-bound, and could remain in this condition for the rest of his life. And on another occurrence was a glassing in a toilet of Melbourne's Basemint nightclub by two men, where it left a 33-year-old Coburg man with 30 stitches in his head and face. It really just shows that it can happen to anyone if one was at the wrong place and time.

Not only does it effect the society and individuals but also the businesses because of people's behaviours. There are restrictions on no new late-night bars or pubs openings of inner Melbourne leastwise until 2012, since the State Government strives to control uninhibited hostilities on the streets of Melbourne because a great amount of the violence occurs after 1 am. However, the Police Association have stated that the weekend's (August 2009) data showed that this legislation was not working and much more was required to reduce the attacks. Shadow attorney-general Robert Clark states that these attacks display how significant Melbourne's culture of violence had become and how the Government is required to consider new sentencing guidelines that set the minimum conditions for violent wrongdoers. According to the Government, there have been an extra 120 police officers only for the city, which is in excess of 350 polices that was promised in the last election. Due to all these violence in Melbourne, the Government has increased the licensing rules which means nightclubs could encounter an increase of roughly $20,000, as a result of this, it will mean owners will lose profit.

Much can be done to improve in social behaviour, which could result in the introduction of new laws. We should firstly educate students in their teenage years of the detrimental effects on their health and the society as they are most likely to have their first drink at this age and will