The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) says Newcastle’s entertainment industry is being put out of business by tough liquor licensing laws.

In 2008, 14 Newcastle hotels were hit with 1:00am lockouts, early closing and restrictions on the number of drinks sold.

Since then, nine of the hotels have gone into receivership and been sold.

Sally Fielke from the AHA says that if the measures are introduced statewide, it will have a devastating effect on the New South Wales economy.

“It wiped off $22 million-odd in value to these hotels but probably more importantly it caused a reduction in employment of almost 25 per cent across the board in this industry,” she said.

“For Newcastle [this] is devastating and to flow that on potentially across the state would just have dire consequences.”

However, the New South Wales Police Association has rejected the claim that the hotels are being put out of business by the laws.

Its Secretary Peter Remfrey says the restrictions are fairly moderate, and it is unlikely that they are responsible for sending the pubs broke.

“These sorts of changes are reducing trading hours from five am to three am, so they’re very modest changes to trading hours,” he said.

“It doesn’t add up to us that that’s the reason for these pubs going broke.

“Contrast [this] of course with the report from the New South Wales Bureau of Crime that proves beyond doubt that the measures introduced in Newcastle have made a significant impact on alcohol-related violence.”