In a stark contrast to the prevailing party line in Sydney, the Victorian government has come out against lockout laws, saying the controversial legislation that’s decimated Sydney’s nightlife has no place in Victoria.
Sydney’s divisive late-night laws have come to the forefront of the national dialogue once again after Premier Mike Baird issued a condescending defence of the unpopular laws via his official Facebook page.
As The Age reports, whilst Queensland is taking steps to enact their own lockouts, the Victorian government is not considering anything of the sort, following a failed dalliance with a 2am lockout back in 2008.
The Brumby Labor government gave up on a Melbourne lockout after it proved extremely unpopular with voters and a KPMG report found that street violence had actually increased during the trial.
Minister for Liquor Regulation Jane Garrett called the trial “a disaster for the fabric of our social and cultural identity”, insisting Victorians know enough to do “the right thing”.
As far as the Victorian government is concerned, the lockouts would only hurt the city’s internationally renowned nightlife and cultural scene, which contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to the economy each year.
According to Fairfax, nightlife in the City of Yarra alone, which includes popular nightlife spots like Fitzroy, Collingwood, and Richmond, is valued at $665 million a year and employs 3,000 people each night.
“We tried lockout laws and it didn’t work for Melbourne,” Ms Garrett said. “Unlike other cities, Melbourne has 24-hour public transport, a liquor freeze on big beer barns and inspectors out on the beat making sure licensees are doing the right thing.”
[include_post id=”471344″]
Even Victoria’s opposition are against the idea of a Melbourne lockout, with Opposition Leader Matthew Guy telling Fairfax, “We trust Victorians to choose where and when to have a drink and we believe the solution to violence is to punish the violent and not everyone else.”
“We don’t see any sense in creating the ghost town that Sydney has become.” Though it may come as a shock to NSW policymakers, assaults in Victoria during “high alcohol hours” have actually dropped in the past two years.
High alcohol hours are defined as “Fridays and Saturdays between 8pm and 6am” and Fairfax reports that state government data shows the rate of assault in this period was 13.3 assaults per 100,000 people in the 2012/13 period and 11.7 in 2014/15.
