But he said it was roundly rejected by licensed venue owners.

However, Sen Sgt Argall said in the wake of this week's decision by the Mildura Liquor Accord to institute a similar ban in that city's late-night venues, the proposal would be back on the Ballarat Liquor Accord's agenda tomorrow.

"Given what Mildura have done and how the Ballarat accord likes to be seen to be leading the way, it will be interesting to see whether they (licensees) will walk the walk or if they are just talking the talk," he said.

"We have talked about it on and off for the last 12 months.

`"The last time we met in November they agreed to not serve shots in the last hour before closing, but they would not ban them totally.

"From our point of view serving shots is probably more likely to lead to the irresponsible service of alcohol and I suppose, from a consumer's perspective, it's a little bit easier to keep track of your own sobriety if you are only consuming a standard drink as opposed

to shots and Jager bombs."

Sen Sgt Argall said the accord - a voluntary committee comprised of representatives from police, council, late night venues, security and taxi companies - agreed to a number of sale restrictions on alcohol at its November meeting, including:

- No shots after 3am;

- One shot per person between 2am and 3am;

- One drink per person in the last half hour of trade at venues that close at 3am; and

- One drink per person in the last hour at venues that close at 4am or 5am.

However, he said the conditions were dependent on venue owners self monitoring and "doing the right thing" and could not be enforced by police.

Sen Sgt Argall said the accord relied on the ongoing participation of licensees

"For any of these initiatives to work we need the support of all accord members, they don't want to be at a competitive disadvantage because at the end of the day they are all running businesses," he said.