Queenstown club Debajo is the first nightclub in the resort to be reined in by a new 4am closing time restriction, and the owner is not happy.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council is gradually introducing the new closing time for all liquor outlets in the town in an attempt to reduce crime.
However, closing time changes are being staggered rather than a blanket uptake on August 4 as was originally set out by the Liquor Licensing Authority.
Under its latest licence, issued in November last year, Debajo was required to stop trading after 4am from August 4, owner Jason Clark said last night.
He understood Subculture nightclub had also had to stop trading after 4am this week.
But there were "up to half a dozen" other Queenstown nightclubs operating after 4am whose licence hearings had been pushed out to the end of August and who already had 24-hour licences set for up to a year.
Other bars in the town had changed to 4am closing, but they were not nightclubs and had not operated after 4am anyway.
It was unfair he should be penalised while other clubs were allowed to stay open after his club's 24-hour licence happened to expire first, Mr Clark said.
"This thing was introduced to be a blanket approach that would encourage people to come in to town earlier and go home earlier. This way, people just go to another bar."
Thirty percent of his business was done after 4am, and since he had started closing earlier regulars who would come in at 2am or 3am were no longer coming to his club.
It would also make it difficult to attract acts to his club, he said.
He planned to complain to the Queenstown Lakes District Council and was getting legal advice on the fairness of the move.
The policy, adopted by the Queenstown Lakes District Council in May 2007, made the blanket 4am closing time district-wide, with the rules to be enforced for bars with existing 24-hour licences when owners came to renew their licences.
After a failed October 2007 challenge from Queenstown bar owner Al Sparry to the new ruling, Liquor Licensing Authority judge William Unwin ruled that 4am closing would apply to all premises from August 4, 2008, the date the last 24-hour licence was up for renewal.
