Mr Jameson recently took over the helm of the OLA, a voluntary agreement between local licensees, police, council and the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing formed to help prevent alcohol related anti-social behaviour, from the Metropolitan Hotel's Mark Murphy.

Previously it was led for a decade by founding president Billy Kelly from Kelly's Hotel, making Mr Jameson's appointment unusual considering he has a retail background.

"That was one of my fears in putting my hand up, being outside the hotel and club industry, putting your hand up and taking some responsibility on," Mr Jameson, who is in management at Orange's Dan Murphy's said.

Mr Jameson said he had sought the advice from Mr Murphy and Senior Sergeant Mick Sullivan before taking on the role and was comfortable leading it into its post-COVID era, which starts with an annual general meeting on September 7.

"The goal is definitely to grow the Liquor Accord, one of the aims of the Liquor Accord is to influence, educate and train, and help keep our community safe. There is a [key performance indicator] in the actual accord constitution to grow the membership," Mr Jameson said.

The liquor accord was formed in the mid 2000s as a state-wide response to anti-social and violent behaviour around licenced venues' late-night trading, mainly in the metropolitan area, with police backing.

Mr Jameson agreed the pandemic has changed the drinking behaviour of patrons.

"A lot of previous accord members don't see much value anymore because they don't see the spike in crime, or there hasn't been the media hype, about underage drinking, vandalism and all that," he said.

"Now with COVID ... the problem has just moved away from the public to behind doors unfortunately, and it's not reported and because it's not reported, no-one sees it."

As a means to growing the OLA membership, Mr Jameson wants to encourage non-voting membership for Orange's wineries and distilleries, with the goal being those licensees will see a value in being part of the organisation and eventually sign-up in full.

"If we engage, even as a non-voting member ... they can see the importance and the collaborative nature of what we are trying to achieve, but the first step is to get them involved," he said.

The more involvement, the more sharing of knowledge and police data, the safer the community could be, he added.

He also would like the industry as a whole to share the responsibility.

"Wineries don't have much risk but when you speak to the pubs and clubs, [patrons] came back and kick on at the hotel afterwards. So we're not sharing the same responsibility and accountability," he said.

Mr Jameson said also hoping to make meeting attendance easier by using online platforms which in turn would help the Accord see through its policies and he also wants to revisit its constitution.

"A lot of what was agreed upon 10, 13 years ago, it's not relevant now."

The other issue which will be pursued is the Western Command's 'banned from one, banned from all' initiative which is enforced in Orange through OLA members but which Mr Jameson said police would like to extend throughout the region.

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