End for Newcastle Lockout Laws, Push in Adelaide Intensifies

Newcastle lockout laws have ended after 15 years, while a push for a similar result in Adelaide looks like becoming an election issue.

Newcastle was the last NSW city to keep the regulations.

The Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) on Thursday (Feb 9) published the results of a trial held in 21 venues.

Held between October 2021 and October 2022, it removed 1am and 1.30am lockouts, extended alcohol sales until 3.30am and snipped restrictions on serving higher strength shots, shooters and cocktails.

The report by Sydney consultants Woolcott Research & Engagement showed a 40 per cent increase in total spending on dining and entertainment across the Newcastle LGA compared to 2019, the most recent year not impacted by COVID restrictions.

Business turnover rise of 36.7per cent would have been higher if not for COVID.

The number of on-premises assaults and incidents of affray rose by 65 per cent, but the ILGA found these limited to a small number of the larger venues.

“You can’t punish all the venues for the ones that do the wrong thing,” said Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp.

The relaxation of the rules – which were used to justify the lockouts in Sydney, now dropped – was challenged by police union, doctors and nurses groups and pro-safety activists.

Trial conditions for the 21 venues will last until June 30, 2023, “to give them time to apply for changes to liquor licences,” said ILGA chair Caroline Lamb.

A similar push Unlock Adelaide has begun to scrap, or at least amend, the rules to bring its nightlife back to full capacity.

The lockout law, introduced in 2013, prohibits patrons from entering from 3:01am and 7am –  and made without a vote or public consultation.

Unlock Adelaide, headed by Bianca Tropeano and George-Alexander Mamalis, argue a review could include staggered lockout times, increased police presence, and the creation of a nighttime committee and a night mayor.

“Although I’m sure there were very good intentions to try it this way … it hasn’t been effective and that the insistence to keep it is illogical,” Tropeano said.

Independent candidate Stephen Pallaras said he would work at repealing the regulation if he got into parliament after the March state elections.

“COVID has hit everybody hard and this law has made it worse,” he said.