Sydney’s live music venues have been suffering all year under the oppression of tough lockout laws that were rushed through Parliament in January.
The city’s music scene has put up heavy resistance with NSW Government officials cracking down hard on venues that are struggling to comply with the implementation of 1:30am lockouts, 3am last drinks, and the statewide closure of bottle shops from 10pm.
In fact, the only people who seem to be benefitting from the draconian laws are illegal warehouse raves, and the Star Casino.
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The casino, which is conveniently exempt from the laws, has seen business increase by 15% – over $100 million – since the introduction of the Sydney lockout in February. The Pyrmont-based casino is exempt from the 1.30am Sydney CBD lockouts and 3am cessation of alcohol service, an exemption that will also apply to the forthcoming Barangaroo casino, due to open in 2019.
Now proof that the damage isn’t just restricted to business bottom lines has also been revealed, and it isn’t pretty.
According to Inthemix, who have obtained a document containing crime data was presented to a parliamentary inquiry into the effectiveness of the lockout and it’s aim to curb ‘alcohol-fuelled’ violence; assaults have doubled in the Sydney CBD since the lockouts introduction.
The research showed that there were 43 people who suffered assaults related to alcohol in Sydney City in February this year, before the lock outs came into effect. Immediately following the lockouts introduction, that number leapt to an increase 91 alcohol related assaults in March, and 85 in April.
In Kings Cross alone, which has been hit hardest by the new laws, the number of alcohol-related assaults has risen from 20 in February, to 27 in March and 29 in May.
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The news should come to no surprise to those familiar with similar laws that were introduced in Melbourne in 2008, and later abandoned following their trial period.
During the trial in Melbourne, an independent audit from KPMG found that it had also lead to an increase in reported assaults between midnight and 2am, when the lockout kicked into place, and also between 2am and 4am. The number of ambulance trips also increased due to the increase in assaults, compared with the three months before the lockout trial.
It’s pretty simple to explain why assaults increase.
When literally tens of thousands of people are forced to flood the streets at the same time, from a variety of different social milieu, gender and states of intoxication, it creates a volatile and dangerous mixing pot of intoxication. In Sydney, this occurs twice, firstly when the initial lock out takes place at 1.30am, and secondly when the curfew takes place at 3am.
Thankfully for music lovers in Melbourne, the lockout was only a trial. Unfortunately for Sydney, the Government rushed through the laws so that the lockout and curfew are now permanent.
Hopefully, with statistics clearly showing the lockout has been both an economic and safety disaster, the NSW Government will abandon these deeply flawed laws.
