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Mike Baird Is Relaxing Sydney's Lockout Laws

Lockouts at "venues that offer genuine live entertainment, live performances, or art and cultural events" will shift to 2 AM from January.
Image by Nat Kassel

New South Wales Premier Mike Baird has announced that Sydney's lockout laws will be softened from January 2017. Lockouts at "venues that offer genuine live entertainment, live performances, or art and cultural events" will shift from 1:30 AM to 2 AM.

Last drinks will be shifted by half-an-hour as well, called at 3:30 AM rather than 3 AM. Laws around takeaway and home delivery alcohol are also set to be extended 10 PM to 11 PM across NSW.

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Asked how the new laws will define "genuine live entertainment," NSW police minister Troy Grant specifically pointed to ARIA Award-winning producer Flume, and confirmed venues with a DJ will be included. "It's live entertainment, not just live music, but it certainly doesn't apply to strip clubs," he told reporters.

The lockout laws will be relaxed as part of a two-year trial recommended by the recent Callinan Review. Although former High Court Justice Ian Callinan argued that "the legislation does not in terms discriminate against any group of people," Premier Baird specifically pointed to the push back the laws have seen from the city's music community.

Speaking Thursday, Premier Baird also announced the laws around small bars in Sydney will be changing. Currently, these bars can now only hold 60 people and must close at midnight. That will be increasing to 100 people and a 2 AM mandatory closing time.

Despite the slight shift in position, Premier Baird remains firmly in support of the controversial laws. "The lockout laws are staying, they have been proven to be effective," he told reporters. "We've seen 40 percent reduction in violence in Kings Cross, and 20 percent across the city."

These statistics have been disputed by New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) director Don Weatherburn. "The problem with that is assaults have been coming down in NSW since 2008, so you had this pre-existing downward trend," he told the ABC back in February. "The people that used to go to Kings Cross at one or three o'clock in the morning have simply scattered to wherever they came from, and they're not bumping into the people they would have had a fight with."

Research by BOSCAR also found that violence at the Star Casino in Pyrmont, which is exempted from the lockouts, may have increased after the laws were implemented—largely alcohol-related assaults occurring on the weekend. "The increase, however, is much smaller than the decreases in assault recorded in the Kings Cross and Sydney CBD entertainment precincts following the reforms," the report clarified.