Last of Sydney’s lockdown laws lifted after 12 years in operation

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The last of Sydney’s lockout laws have been lifted, twelve years after being introduced by state government. The music industry says the impact over the years has been terrible.

Transcript

00:00there's no doubting the the impact that the lockout laws have had in a kind of protracted way

00:07on you know our our capacity to and permissiveness and capacity for folks to kind of get out and

00:14and engage with music in the city um but i think encouragingly now we really have

00:19the regulatory environment that we need for music and nightlife to really flourish

00:24yeah so to what extent has that turned around before now yeah i mean there's dead and music

00:32new south wales certainly commends the new south wales government and the work that they have done

00:36through the vibrancy reforms packages over the last few years um we saw the lockouts first uh

00:43repealed in 2021 and then the last of those have kind of um we've put the last nail in that coffin

00:48today um and so yeah we really embrace that work i think importantly while we've actually got a

00:57regulatory environment now that's in in so many ways stronger than it was in the kind of pre-lockouts

01:02era um and the important thing as well is that we have really incredible local artists and that's

01:07never changed we have artists all across sydney who are making incredible work whether it's in our

01:13kind of vibrant electronic and dance community whether that's in the r&b scene that's that's

01:18really you know thriving out in western sydney we've got a an amazing experimental and jazz music

01:24scene in sydney there's so much really great work happening and so if i had a kind of rallying call

01:29to uh sydney siders it's really just to kind of lift your gaze above the dull homogeny of the

01:36algorithms and go and support live music we really have so much going on in our city and this is a

01:41really uh market step forward for for um for the scene the dull homogeny of the algorithms i love

01:48that and um so uh take us through the details of this you say the the regulatory environment now is

01:55probably even a bit stronger than it was pre-lockout just yeah take us through um that that's right i

02:01mean i think there were a whole bunch of quite archaic uh regulatory uh you know conditions that were

02:08imposed on different venues licenses so things like you know not being able to dance in venues

02:13where there were mirror balls hanging or um you know stages needing to face certain directions based

02:19on historic complaints from from um you know nape you know single complainant neighbors those kinds

02:24of things so a lot of that work has really been wound back through the vibrancy reform package that

02:28the office of the 24-hour economy commissioner and others within the new south wales government

02:33have really led with uh sustained advocacy from across the sector um so we're in a really strong

02:39place now i think the the battleground now it's really about how audiences are connecting with

02:44artists because we've never had been in any doubt that there's great artists could have um coming out

02:49of sydney so the connecting piece is um is you know ensuring that the folks who live in sydney are

02:54getting out and supporting those artists yeah and what are the latest laws that have just been the

03:00final the final remnants of the laws that are being lifted now yeah i mean that these are just

03:07you know tweaks around uh last drinks those kinds of things um there are some kind of yeah little bits

03:14and pieces of the of the regulatory you know framework that were overhanging from um from the lockouts

03:21when they were kind of first introduced 12 years ago um so yeah we're in a really great place and and

03:28um happy to to commend the government for for their work in that space what about the people who kind

03:33of fought for these laws initially and their ongoing concerns about late night boozy violence

03:41yeah i mean i think i mean interestingly you know and first it's important to acknowledge that

03:48the you know uh violence perpetrated by men mainly in our nightlife spaces is a significant concern and

03:56and um we uh you know uh of course sympathetic to the the families of the victims who were involved in

04:06the lockouts being brought into place in the first in the first instance um interestingly though i mean

04:12some of those events they happened at 9 30 pm you know the actual lockouts were a kind of brash

04:18uh response to a much more difficult systemic problem which is um alcohol fueled violence and

04:26certainly um the kind of over policing and of you know the permissiveness of of folks participating in

04:34nightlife and music in sydney um was in in the view of music new south wales uh not the best way to

04:41kind of solve that much more difficult systemic problem um yeah i think we need to have a more

04:47nuanced conversation about that and is what's the kind of the level of vibrancy in sydney now and uh

04:54compared to what it was kind of three or five years ago yeah well as i said earlier i mean we've

04:59always and continue to have really great artists i mean there are so many musicians makers event

05:06promoters doing really interesting things there was a period where they were kind of exiled into

05:11non-traditional venue spaces through that lockout um period but that's never really changed i think

05:17the the call and certainly our message to folks living in sydney or anyone who's wanting to come and

05:22visit sydney to engage in the really great art and art making that we have in the city is to the

05:28people living in the space to kind of look up and get involved in supporting their local their local

05:33artists so seek out independent music media listen to community community radio listen to local abc radio

05:41um go out and see shows buy tickets buy them early and of course evangelize about the artists you love

05:47talk to your friends and family about the artists that are connecting with you this is a really important

05:51function of the way that we can all support local music and speaking about local music are you having fun

05:57in tamworth just arrived um but yeah really looking forward to uh to a couple of days of the tamworth

06:04country music festival it's always a good time to be up here um and uh and supporting the best

06:10country talent that we have coming out of new south wales and australia that's a that's a great

06:13festival are we going to see some video of you boot scooting we'll see joe

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended