Changes announced to Sydney lockout laws

  • Published
    Wed, Dec 7, 2016, 23:26
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  • The NSW State Government will extend the city's lockouts and last drinks by half an hour.
  • Changes announced to Sydney lockout laws image
  • NSW Premier Mike Baird has announced that he will relax Sydney's lockout laws by a margin of 30 minutes. With the State Government's new revisions in place, lockouts will be pushed back from 1:30 AM to 2 AM and last drinks will be extended from 3 AM to 3:30 AM at venues within the affected CBD and Kings Cross area, provided they are offering live entertainment, performances or art and cultural events. The curfew on take away alcohol sales will also be amended from 10 PM to 11 PM across the state. The changes, which the ABC report will be part of a two-year trial beginning in January, mirror the findings in High Court Judge Ian Callinan QC's independent review of the laws which, when published in September, recommended these particular adjustments be implemented. Prermier Baird made a statement on the changes, saying "Mr Callinan found that the lockout laws introduced in February 2014 have resulted in much safer, quieter and cleaner areas. He made some common-sense suggestions for changes that we are confident will further enhance night-life in the precincts without undermining the essential purpose of the laws—which is to make the CBD and the Cross places where people can enjoy a safe night out." Anti-lockouts movement Keep Sydney Open took to Twitter to comment on the freshly announced changes, calling the half-hour extension "an insult to businesses and Sydney's global status," adding in another Tweet that "we consider this to be tokenism." The group has long called for lockouts to be abolished entirely, a sentiment which was echoed last week by Amsterdam Night Mayor Mirik Milan who told the ABC that "what the State Government wants is behavioural change, and you don't get behavioural change from blaming it on the operators," concluding that the Government's prohibitive approach "will not work."
RA