Why You'll Have a Bad Night Out in Sydney

The best way to enjoy anything is to have it snatched from you at the very peak of your enjoyment. Well that's what the government of New South Wales thinks if their response to a tragic cluster of assault deaths in the Boschian shitshow represented by the Kings Cross district is a gauge. They did the thing any conservative government who values unthinking, imprudent reaction to hysterical public outcry above considered resolution of complex cultural problems would: they made everything less fun.

From February 24, people who are capable of enjoying a night out in Sydney's central business district without fatally assaulting a teenager are unable to enter any licensed venue after 1.30AM. Nor can they leave and reenter past that time. No drinks are served anywhere after 3AM. There are a clutch of smaller venues not been deemed "high risk" exempt from these laws. You know, small venues like the Star Casino. Just some tiny place which generated 1.2 billion dollars of revenue in the 2013 financial year. A teat from which the New South Wales government suckled heartily. They're also looking after scrappy new small businesses. The future site of a two-billion-dollar casino built by plutocrat James Packer is also exempt. I did not ask Packer for comment. I assumed he was too busy deciding which endangered animal's windpipe will give him the least mediocre erection when he crushes it with his lumpen hands.

Jimmy Sing is one of the venue owners directly affected. He co-owns Goodgod which has hosted artists like Bambonou, Big Freedia, Diplo, Tim Sweeney, and Peanut Butter Wolf. It's an exemplar of why these laws are heedless and, ultimately, destructive. Goodgod has never had a serious violent incident since opening over three years ago and exists almost wholly for music. Good music. Jimmy says, "when you go into a club where everyone is coming together for a certain type of music or there's something binding them in that way that club is so often a safe house compared to the street outside. People come together to feel at ease with each other." Despite nurturing such an environment and possessing an untarnished record Goodgod is subject to the same restrictions as punch factories elsewhere in the Cross. Though the club still lives, it suffers. Parties it would normally host have moved into areas such as Newtown, not planned for nightlife. Mostly it seems the indignity of it all, seeing a "genuine 24-hour nightlife area transformed into something that's just another cafe strip" that gets to him the most.

As it does Vic Edirisinghe of Astral People—an organisation which manages locals including Cosmo's Midnight, Collarbones, and Cliques and has toured internationals such as Shlohmo, Oneohtrix Point Never, and XXYYXX. He says that despite the laws having an effect on ticket sales "not as negative as I thought it would" it's still sad to see a city empty at 3AM. Still a net negative impacting on people's freedom and one making a bitter lie of the City of Sydney's continual crowing about the city being vibrant and cosmopolitan. Vic says that there's a small benefit in "putting on the headliner a bit earlier, getting people down a bit earlier, making the most of it, starting the night a bit earlier and then having local acts a bit after and really giving them a full dancefloor to play to when it comes to the 1.30AM mark" but that lining—to me—falls a little short of silver.

Keep Sydney Open is a late night culture alliance that was created to advocate for live music venues just as the knee started to jerk. They've continued to consult with venues, observing staff moved from full- to part-time work, shift lengths shortening and rates paid to DJs diminishing. Kirsty Brown of the alliance and Music NSW nails the injustice, "you're asking people to absorb the cost of the lockout but then you're taking away their ability to make money over the bar." It's not just bars, bartenders and kebab shops you should weep for either. Self-described "feminist stripper and homo heartthrob", Shiloh Hartley, says when similar laws were enacted in Adelaide, she lost out. "After 3AM, since no one is allowed in, the club clears out and it's just a pathetic rotation of the same penniless losers that have been in there for hours… I'd say I'm losing an extra $500–$800 a night".

So why have such rushed, restrictive laws been put into place despite incidents of alcohol-related non-domestic violence assaults falling by 28 percent statewide over the 2008-12 period? Kirsty says it's "the old media. I think it's your Daily Telegraph and your Sydney Morning Herald whipping people up into a frenzy based on something they didn't understand and didn't do their research on. Plain and simple." Striking fear into uninformed suburban hearts. Hearts which then scream for response to problems they don't understand and will likely never have to encounter. "The media basically prescribes the action it wants and then the government follow through with that. Because they don't want to appear weak on crime or pro kids getting hit in the head. It leaves them with no option but to be as tough as what they think people want from them."

Of course, the media being to blame is usually a jacket that fits an ill-informed conspiracist more than a reasonable person. This is not the case here. Consider that in 2013 Michael Foggo—a former commissioner of the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing—led the first review of New South Wales' 2007 Liquor Act. Concluding that "the review does not support calls for blanket trading hours or a one size fits all policy. Such a measure would unfairly penalise the vast majority of late trading venues that consistently operate within the law and make a positive contribution to the late night economy. The measure would also have a significant impact on local employment and economic activity."

The review was commissioned by the same government which completely ignored those recommendations. A fact that doesn't definitively prove the Sydney lockout laws were generated by a government bending to media-generated panic any more than those laws guarantee you'll have a shitty night out in Sydney. But both go a long, long way to make those things seem likely.

Kane Daniel massages glorious Twitter paintings out of his heart, mind and penis here.