Gadigal Land/Sydney's final lockout laws repealed, framed as policy milestone

12 years after Sydney’s controversial lockout laws were introduced by then Premier Barry O’Farrell, the NSW Government has today announced that the last of these laws has been abolished.

This final set of laws includes:

• The 3:30 AM ‘last drinks’ rule, which was a key selling point of the laws in 2014.
• The mandated use of plastic cups.
• The requirement for RSA marshals after midnight for certain venues.
• The blanket per-person drink limits.
• Limiting the sale of shots during late trade in the precincts.

In a public statement, Minister for Music and the Night-time Economy John Graham shared:

“Twelve years to the day since they were announced, we are now declaring the lockout laws have been completely abolished. I’m delighted to say goodbye to this chapter of Sydney’s nightlife story.

The lockouts had good intentions but a diabolical impact on the night-time economy and the reputation of our city. These were the laws that saw Madonna and Justin Bieber not allowed into their own afterparties, and the decimation of the club scene that spawned Rufus Du Sol and Flight Facilities.”

The lockout laws have been credited with dealing a decisive blow to Sydney’s club culture, with more than half of the city’s live music venues forced to close over the following decade and countless businesses across the city’s CBD closing as a result. Then Premier O’Farrell resigned several months after implementing the laws, after he announced that a signed thank-you note for a $3,000 bottle of wine had been tendered to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The laws were designed to combat Sydney city’s perceived problem with alcohol-fuelled violence, which was blamed for the tragic ‘coward punch’ deaths of both Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

In 2016, Christie’s father shared that he and his family were never consulted over the laws. “The then-Premier Barry O’Farrell promised to contact me to discuss the changes in laws which were brought about in Daniel’s name,” he told SBS’ The Feed at the time. “I’m still waiting for a call, although I’ve read that I’ve been consulted.”

“...I have little faith that the specific people of our community from whom the lockout laws are designed to protect us will ever change, unless education, reduction in the availability of alcohol, and a change in community standards takes place.”

Today’s announcement of the repeal of the final aspects of the lockout laws has sparked much celebration, albeit with more than half of the voices now no longer part of the group able to celebrate.

The decision to repeal the laws has come as a result of a swathe of reforms the NSW Government has implemented under its ‘vibrancy reforms’. They have recently included the banning of single-neighbour noise complaints, as well as the loosening of administrative burdens on venues, such as rules around drinking outdoors and restrictions on which genres could be played at certain venues.

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In a statement today, the Minister for Gaming and Racing, David Harris, shared that the lockout laws had been totally repealed after “a thorough and considered review by Liquor & Gaming NSW found no compelling reason to single out licensed venues in the Sydney CBD and Kings Cross with outdated restrictions.

Instead we’re being far smarter with safety via targeted, risk-based regulation of venues rather than blanket conditions to ensure those doing the right thing are not hammered by a blunt instrument.”

The office of Gaming & Racing, also known as L&GNSW, has long been at the forefront of enforcing licensing restrictions, such as the lockout laws.

As recently as 2019, Goro’s, a Japanese-style izakaya next to Sydney’s Central Station, had a police enquiry over its disco ball, despite it not holding a license to operate as a nightclub. At the time, L&GNSW confirmed that their license “does not mention a mirror ball and it can operate as a nightclub but there is a no-glass condition in this instance.”

The celebratory tone of an announcement such as this may indicate that government offices have only ever campaigned for the laws’ removal, rather than presenting it as good news in the lead-up to an election year.

“The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research has confirmed downward trends in alcohol-related violence in the Sydney CBD and Kings Cross over the past five years following earlier changes to lockout laws,” Minister for Gaming and Racing David Harris continued. In 2019, Deloitte Access Economics found that the lockout laws had contributed to an underdeveloped night-time economy, resulting in Sydney missing out on $16 billion per year.

Throughout this release and much of the news shared online, there is an omission of the huge protests over the laws that have occurred in the 12 years since their implementation.

1000 people took to the streets of Sydney in 2015 under the banner of Reclaim The Streets, accusing the government of merely pushing the issue of alcohol-fuelled violence into other suburbs like Newtown. In 2016, Keep Sydney Open ran a number of protests against the lockout laws, with some reports estimating attendance at its February protest at around 15,000 people. Many local musicians, including The Preatures, Nina Las Vegas, Royal Headache, Art vs. Science and label Future Classic showed their support for the group, and in 2019, it ran in the New South Wales election.

In an article posted yesterday, titled ‘Lockouts and lockdowns cut a generation out of nightclubs. That’s about to end’, the Sydney Morning Herald discusses the idea that “Sydney’s nightlife is dead, killed by lockouts, then lockdown.”

Heavily contrasted against the tone of this piece is an opinion shared by the paper in 2019, written by ex-Police officer Pat Gooley and titled ‘You can't argue with the facts: our lockout laws are saving lives’.

Comments on the SMH’s Instagram post about this article accuse the publication of being disingenuous in its reporting and goals. “Your outlet helped to create the narrative of Sydney nightlife being dangerous and violent which Mike Baird used to justify enacting these laws and trying to funnel people into the casino. Congratulations on celebrating the repeal of these laws, I hope your readers have short memories,” one user writes.

On the same post, Channel [V] alumni turned director and producer Danny Clayton said, “Excellent news… but culture isn’t a tap you can turn off/on.”

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While the total repeal of Sydney’s lockout laws is a welcome step for many business owners, musicians, and hospitality workers, it’s also an admission by the Minns government that heavy-handed government policy is worth scrutinising, and that those in less legally-focused sectors do in fact have the expertise necessary to engage in those conversations.

The impact of the Minns government’s attempt to revitalise Sydney’s nightlife will remain to be seen. What is missing, at this stage at least, is any kind of apology from or on behalf of anyone.