Speaking on Tuesday night, Cr Dal Broi said the ongoing problems with anti-social behaviour in the CBD warranted a heavy-handed approach and demanded the city’s hoteliers take responsibility.

“We’ve tried everything over the years, and to still have people bashed … we have to take a tough stance,” he said.

“I’m surprised to see the hoteliers saying it’s going to affect their business. If their business is selling alcohol then they have to be responsible.”

However, speaking against the motion, Cr Christine Stead, herself a licensee, said laying the blame solely on pubs and clubs was misguided.

“It’s not the licensed outlets, they do their job … These people are drinking at home and they’re not going out until 11 or 12 o’clock at night and that’s where the problem is,” Cr Stead said.

The NSW Auditor-General’s report into alcohol-related crime released this week reveals the Griffith Local Government Area had 278 instances of alcohol-related assaults in 2006-07, with state-wide trends indicating most assaults occurred between the hours of 12am and 3am and involved males aged 18-25 years.

Of these assaults, almost one-third took place took place on licensed premises, according to Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat.

“One way to reduce alcohol-related crime is to prevent people from reaching undesirable levels of intoxication,” Mr Achterstraat said.

“This is best achieved by licensees adopting responsible service of alcohol practices.”

Some of the plans the state government is believed to be considering is to ban drunks from licensed venues for six months and a policy of naming and shaming pubs that breach the responsible service of alcohol provisions.