Why there'll be no morning-after regrets when Sydney eases lockout laws

What will Sydney be like the morning after the lockouts are lifted? The Premier’s announcement on Thursday that lockout restrictions will be repealed everywhere but Kings Cross from January 14 was welcome and long overdue. Nearly six years of lockouts cost our economy $16 billion a year in lost revenue and tarnished our reputation as a fun, global city.

We found ourselves constantly defending our city from accusations of being boring, that the nanny state had driven Sydneysiders onto the couch, with only Netflix and UberEats where our social lives used to be.

The Australian Medical Association and the police union have raised concerns that repealing the lockouts will spark a return to drunken violence on the streets and overwhelmed emergency wards.
But a lot has changed in those six years: our city’s night-time future won’t look like our past. Rates of problem drinking among young Australians have continued to fall. Ridesharing apps have changed the way we get around, and helped solve one of the problems that contributed to conflicts – getting large numbers of people out of the city in the early hours.

The new light rail transforming George Street will also help move people around the CBD and Haymarket with an ease we’ve never experienced before. New city neighbourhoods such as Darling Square, Green Square and Barangaroo have sprung up, offering a nightlife more focused on food and boutique bar experiences than beer barns.

Sydney won’t magically regain all its nightlife mojo at midnight on January 14. It will take a long time for our night-time economy to recover. But the end of the lockouts is a rare opportunity to shape what our city offers after dark to work for everyone.

We can offer alternatives to our old drinking culture and help build a diversity of late-night options. In June, the City of Sydney overhauled our planning rules, allowing unlicensed businesses such as cafes, hairdressers and retail outlets to apply for 24-hour trading, while entertainment and hospitality venues on major high streets can also apply to trade later.

We’re giving bonus hours to venues that program performances such as drag, comedy, music and theatre, and we’ve provided more than $1 million in grants over two years to support new programming. These changes are giving people more options for things to do at night besides drinking, creating a friendlier, livelier night-time streetscape.

Now we need more funding and policy leadership from the state government to revive Sydney’s live music scene. The NSW parliamentary inquiry into the music and arts economy recommended the government invest at least $35 million into arts and contemporary music over the next four years. Instead, in January, the state government pledged $1.5million. It’s not enough to turn things around, and it falls short when compared with the Victorian government’s $22.2 million Music Works package. Substantial investments are required.

We know this will work because it’s happened before. In 2010, the Victorian government introduced punitive licensing restrictions to address alcohol-fuelled violence that had a disastrous impact on the city’s music scene. Thanks to the efforts of Save Live Australian Music, the government rolled those restrictions back and got behind supporting and promoting live music. Now, Melbourne has a music scene that’s the envy of the world.

It’s also vital that Kings Cross is not left to languish under the lockouts indefinitely as other parts of the city begin to recover. Residents and businesses don’t want a return to the alcohol and drug-fuelled violence of the worst days, but there is a place in a revitalised Sydney for a Cross where it’s both fun and safe to have a night out. The Cross deserves a clear roadmap from government setting out how the precinct rejoins the rest of Sydney – one that involves businesses, police, health workers, performers, residents and council in a truly collaborative solution.

Rebuilding Sydney’s brand as a global destination will require us all to play our part. Our city hasn’t been allowed to shine these last few years but, if we flip the script, we can make it sing again. We have an opportunity to redesign the way we party and create the kind of city that everyone can dance the night away in.

Jess Scully is a City of Sydney councillor.