Earlier this month, Premier Campbell Newman introduced the bill which he said would make the state’s entertainment precincts safer. Measures include drunk tanks, mandatory ID scanning, increased police powers and stronger sentencing.

It makes no changes to trading hours or curfews – a key part of the Labor strategy, which calls for a 1am lockout and 3am last drinks.

In introducing the legislation, Mr Newman said he was determined not to punish the majority of revellers for the bad behaviour of a few.

The LNP strategy found support in the entertainment community and with groups such as No Curfew, which lobbied hard against instigating a solution similar to what was put in place in Newcastle and more recently, Sydney, in response to alcohol violence.

But some of the measures have caused concern within the legal community, with the Queensland Law Society questioning whether the legislation would be effective “in addressing the underlying issues”.

“We are likely to see the changes impact disproportionately on vulnerable offenders, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those with a mental illness or intellectual impairment,” QLS President Ian Brown said in a statement.

Chief among the QLS concerns were the creation of new offences, such as ‘unlawful striking causing death’, also called the coward’s punch law, which under the legislation is to carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, but is also designed to “exclude any consideration of whether the ensueing death of the victim due to the strike by the person to the victim’s head or neck was likely or foreseeable (whether reasonable or otherwise) in the circumstances”.

“Duplicating existing offences has the potential to cause confusion and in some instances, may result in significant injustices without acting as an effective deterrent to potential offending,” Mr  Brown said.

In the submission sent to the parliamentary committee reviewing the legislation, the QLS also highlights “potential breaches of legislative principles”, including a section of the legislation which makes completing a drug and alcohol assessment referral course mandatory in order to be released on bail.  It also points out that the ‘unlawful striking causing death’ is “appropriately covered by the current offence of manslaughter” – which also carries a maximum life imprisonment penalty.

The QLS also questioned the need to change existing public nuisance and being drunk in a public place provisions.

The Bar Association of Queensland, in its submission, raised similar concerns regarding the mandatory drug and alcohol assessment referral course and the unlawful striking offence.

“The Association is concerned that ... the provision in its current form may well lead to convictions in circumstances where the defences of accident, prevention of repetition of insult and provocation would otherwise have operated to exculpate an accused person,” its submission reads.

“It is easy to envisage circumstances in which the application of some minor force by one person to another might cause the death of the other person, however unintended or unforeseeable. It would be unjust for a person charged under this section not to be able to rely on the defences of accident, prevention of repetition of insult and provocation in appropriate circumstances.”

But the new offence was “firmly” supported by the Valley Liquor Accord, which is chaired by Nick Braban.

Mr Braban said the strengthening of laws regarding alcohol fuelled violence was “long overdue”.

Community lobby group, No Curfew, also supported the majority of the legislation, but raised concerns that improving transport around entertainment precincts was not included in the legislation.

“The queues at taxi ranks and the lack of regular transport during the early hours of the morning is a serious concern and No Curfew would recommend the Department of Transport and Main Roads to conduct a review and construct a transport plan aimed at addressing these issues,” its submission read.

But teacher Edward Fricker’s submission included a possible solution for that – he proposed that “bars that open later than midnight should be forced to stay open until 6am”.

“This way, the staff and the customers can walk home in daylight safely and don’t have to walk through the streets at night where there are no busses or trains,” he wrote.

“Keeping the bars open is a privatised way of ensuring safety of everyone in the entertainment areas.”

Submissions close on July 4.