A licensing court cannot reject uncontroverted expert evidence about alcohol-related harm by substituting its own unevidenced opinion or by advancing reasons incapable of supporting the rejection. The assessment of potential harm under s 5(1)(b) of the Liquor Licensing Act 1988 (WA) must be contextual, taking into account existing levels of alcohol-related harm in the community, not merely the incremental risk in the abstract. The licensing authority cannot impose conditions on a hotel licence that vary the fundamental requirement in s 41(2)(a) to sell liquor for on-premises consumption to any person, as s 63 restricts the power to vary conditions imposed by the Act itself.
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