Hilarious Signs Only Silver Lining As Sydney Protests Against Lockout Laws, Again
Fun-loving Sydneysiders were once again out in (peaceful) force on Sunday marching against their city’s nightlife-choking lockout laws. Thousands packed Belmore Park, which saw around 15,000 people at Keep Sydney Open’s previous anti-lockout laws gathering.
Several big names continued to add weight to the rally’s message and helped stoke the morale of protesters, including emcee Urthboy, the frontwoman of The Jezabels Hayley Mary, Aussie rock icon Jimmy Barnes, and sets from One Day plus Touch Sensitive, and Ariane and Paul Mac with Stereogamous. There were also plenty of hilarious and pun/meme-tastic signs and placards wielded by the frustrated crowd.
Barnes put his support behind Keep Sydney Open in a Facebook video a few days before the protest.
“I made a career playing in live venues in Sydney. Since the lockout laws have come into place live venues attendance are down 40 per cent. The lockout laws aren’t working,” said Barnes in the video.
According to Music Feeds, protest organisers Keep Sydney Open are calling for the NSW Government to lift the city’s 1:30am lockout, allow exemptions to the 3am cease of service, change the 10pm bottle shop curfew to midnight, and stop the freeze on liquor license applications in inner-city entertainment districts.
The latest Sydney lockout laws protest comes just days after a report found the laws are pushing violence to the city’s Star Casino rather than making Sydney’s nightlife safer.
A new analysis of Sydney’s controversial lockout laws has taken place, and the results challenge previous conclusions drawn by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) which suggested the laws are actually effective.
As the ABC reports, the analysis was undertaken using publicly avialable data by two economists and a mathematics post-doc for Keep Sydney Open. In comparison to BOCSAR analysis, the latest study shows the number of assaults in Sydney had been decreasing for years since its peak in 2008.
The new analysis also found Kings Cross foot traffic has decreased more significantly than the amount of alcohol-related assaults since the lockout laws, meaning the rate of assaults has actually RISEN since the lockout laws have taken effect. The latest study also found non-domestic assaults at the Star Casino has risen by 30 per cent and the amount of alcohol-fuelled violence has doubled.
The number of alcohol-fuelled assaults in the rest of New South Wales however has remained stable, but has risen in Sydney in areas that exist outside of the lockout zones.
Here in Brisbane, it’s been just over three months since Queensland’s controversial revised lockout laws came into effect, and it seems they’re proving to be just as harmful as Sydney’s.
Speaking to The Guardian, the Valley Liquor Accord’s chairman Nick Braban says venues have experienced a drop in revenue and patronage is down by a third since the 1st of July. “The first weekend revenue was down by about 12 per cent and it’s flatlined since then,” said Braban. He also says casual workers are losing at much as $90 a week due to a loss of working hours.
On the non-business side of the lockout laws, Chaplain Watch founder Lance Mergard says his volunteers are encountering and being forced to deal with “heavily wasted” punters earlier in the night than usual.
“It used to be around midnight when we would start getting really busy, but now it’s as early as 9:30pm,” says Mergard. He also says there’s been no discernible increase or decrease in alcohol-fuelled violence, looks like the lockout laws aren’t even a Band-Aid fix…
The Courier Mail reports Queensland Health statistics show there were less than 7000 alcohol-related presentations at the state’s hospitals to July 31 this year, or nearly 1000 a month. By comparison, a total of 12,083 patients (or an average of 1006 a month) were treated for alcohol related injuries in 2015.
Only time will tell if Queensland’s lockout laws, which from February next year will only become tougher, will actually curb alcohol-fuelled violence on our streets.
Check out the best of the Sydney protest signs below! (sourced from Music Feeds)
