he views many of the 1500 members of the QHA whose membership fees effectively pay his salary.<\/a><\/p>\nHe can reel off quirky stories about pubs and publicans from one end of the state to the other and after exactly a decade in the chair as CEO of the Queensland hotel industry\u2019s major advocacy body, he remains passionate for the cause.<\/p>\n
He joined the QHA after a wide and varied career, with jobs ranging from lobbying for the mining sector, to coaching rugby in the US and working as a sales rep for The Courier-Mail, Melbourne\u2019s Herald Sun and before that the community news stable of Quest newspapers in southeast Queensland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a very clever person once say to me, \u201cYou never leave sales – you\u2019re always selling something\u201d,\u201d he says over a rib eye fillet across the road from one of the world\u2019s most famous surfing beaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might be an idea, it might be a trinket – doesn\u2019t matter. You\u2019re trying to influence something. So that\u2019s what I do now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hogan\u2019s story starts in the tiny Queensland community of Mirani outside Mackay, the youngest of seven children whose parents were sugar cane farming teetotallers \u2013 a fact which draws a wry grin from Hogan, given his current occupation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit funny,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing from non-drinking parents and I ended up running the Queensland Hotels Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not entirely sure why they didn\u2019t drink, to be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they made some sort of pact when they were younger or something and it just was never a thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey never cared about it. Plenty of the relatives, et cetera, did drink… and my mum\u2019s father was actually a publican.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hogan grew up loving rugby league (and union) and while he\u2019s too humble to brag, he did well enough at school to be accepted into university to study law.<\/p>\n
He moved to Brisbane and Griffith University, swapping law for international business, all the while working at pubs across Brisbane.<\/p>\n
Whether that lit some kind of secret spark which later steered Hogan towards the liquor industry, he isn\u2019t sure, but after moving to the UK to follow that well-worn backpacker trail, he continued working in bars including the legendary White Lion in Covent Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic part of the world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you really learn pub culture there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we demonise drinking at times\u2026 whereas it\u2019s often about bringing the community together, and remember their houses over there are so small, so the pub or the tavern is the front room, it\u2019s the lounge room, it\u2019s where they go to interact with society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hogan returned to Queensland \u2013 and a job as a newspaper sales rep before moving first to Melbourne and then to Washington DC with his then-girlfriend (and now wife) Lori in the aftermath of 9-11 in 2001.<\/p>\n
While she worked in senior roles for the Australian government, he landed a job with the Australian Embassy as security director, overseeing such momentous occasions as a visit by then-Prime Minister John Howard to George Dubya Bush\u2019s ranch in Texas.<\/p>\n
Outside of work he played and coached rugby union, including a period with the US governing body at a level just below the national team.<\/p>\n
He also became familiar with the politics of one of the world\u2019s most important cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think politics is big in Australia,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerica is just so far above that and it\u2019s obviously particularly entrenched in a place like Washington DC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many associations and unions and corporations and lobbyist firms\u2026 and then all the big military companies all around it\u2026 so yeah, it\u2019s politics on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n
That four-year stint helped shape the skillset which has made Hogan such a respected figure in Queensland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually really fortunate\u2026 I had some wonderful consuls there who were my boss, the consul generals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou learn a lot from people who\u2019ve made it work internationally for 20 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a skill in working with government\u2026 and you learn diplomacy and diplomacy is basically lobbying, advocacy\u2014call it what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
With this new skillset, he returned to Australia and took on a number of jobs focusing on advocacy, lobbying or government relations, before a mate \u201ctapped me on the shoulder\u201d about the QHA post made vacant by the retirement of long-serving CEO Justin O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt probably entwined a lot of things that I really enjoyed… There is a skill in working with government, in advocating for an industry,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very lucky to take over a wonderful team, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been high-performing well before I turned up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hogan\u2019s role covers a wide range of issues for an industry vital to the economy, but often seemingly performing with one hand tied behind its back.<\/p>\n
He takes particular exception to restrictions on trading hours \u2013 an issue which raised its head during the FIFA World Cup when Hogan successfully lobbied for special exemptions allowing licenced venues to sell alcohol during Australia\u2019s knockout match against Egypt in the early hours of the morning.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a core component of the push to revitalise Queensland\u2019s night-time economy, which made headlines this week with the release by the state government of the night-life economy action plan, a blueprint designed to steer the state\u2019s hospitality sector towards the 2032 Olympics.<\/p>\n
The action plan \u201cendorsed or noted\u201d 50 of 62 recommendations made by a committee headed by former Powderfinger bass player and prominent Brisbane music identity John \u201cJC\u201d Collins.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a start, but Hogan says it\u2019s well short of his goal for 24-hour trading for licenced venues across the state.<\/p>\n
While naysayers and doomsdayers are quick to point out potential pitfalls, Hogan is more pragmatic and believes that even if every venue was \u201callowed\u201d to serve booze around the clock, it doesn\u2019t mean they will.<\/p>\n
Instead, he\u2019s advocating for the removal of restrictions, so that if the pubs of Mount Isa want to trade all night during the town\u2019s iconic rodeo festival (or Brisbane pubs during the Ekka for another example), they should be allowed.<\/p>\n
While the Commonwealth Games hasn\u2019t exactly inspired the kind of fanatical fervour demanding pubs open at 4am for blockbuster contests, Hogan believes there are many perfect opportunities over the coming years and he is adamant we don\u2019t want to be still tinkering with the laws come 2032.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re inviting the world here in under six years now,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Brazilians and the Spaniards aren\u2019t going home at two in the morning – they\u2019re not even going out till 11\u2026 so we need to get better at this.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike any skill, you\u2019ve got to practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019d like to see us be smarter about it\u2026 when the Rugby World Cup\u2019s on next here for instance – we\u2019ve got over 10 games in Queensland – let\u2019s start working around those.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019d like to see it across the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Mount Isa there\u2019s a rodeo that goes for three days – that\u2019s their biggest time of the year probably, so why don\u2019t we allow them to be open later? Let them make hay while the sun shines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Melon Festival at Chinchilla, the Dirt and Dust Festival (Julia Creek)? The Vision Splendid out in Winton. Why not? They\u2019re the kind of events we should be looking at and if people want to stay open, they will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hogan believes such changes are long overdue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Liquor Act was written in 1994 by people who grew up in the \u201870s\u2026 who were informed by their parents in the \u201850s,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy kids both work in hospitality and I look at them and go, \u201cYou guys will never experience the fun that we had\u201d, because there\u2019s so many more constraints on it of what you can do, how you can do it, when you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is a strong advocate for personal responsibility and doesn\u2019t believe an entire industry should be punished for the drunken violence or other mistakes of a small few.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still want responsible service of alcohol, we still want adequate security and safety, but times have changed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to have cab lines 300 people long and that was where a lot of the violence happened \u2013 now if you want to go home you just jump in an Uber.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economy has shifted too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s over 800,000 Queenslanders working between 6pm and 6am \u2013 they should have every right to knock off and have a beer after work whether it\u2019s 7 at night or 8 in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hogan says society and rule-makers tend to \u201cdemonise\u201d drinking at times, with links to violence, crime and financial hardship, but he sees the benefits of pubs too.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially in regional or rural communities, the pub is often the de facto mental health clinic – they\u2019re where people go to connect,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a congregating [place]\u2026 people get to share their woes and to celebrate their joys and I think that\u2019s really important.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting less and less of that in the modern world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read related topics:High Steaks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bernie Hogan\u2019s impressive CV shows he finished work as a sales rep long ago. But the Queensland 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