Berejiklian reveals Sydney’s lockout D-Day: ‘Except for Kings Cross’
Sydney’s lockout laws finally have an expiration date, with the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian revealing the regulations will cease in January 2020.
From January 14, the long-standing 1:30am lockout across Sydney’s CBD and Oxford Street will no longer be in place.
In a press conference on Thursday, Berejiklian announced that the laws will be wound back everywhere except for the Kings Cross precinct.
“From the 14th of January, the lockout laws will be gone, except for Kings Cross,” the Premier said.
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The 3:30am ‘last drinks’ law will stay in place across the city, with exceptions for venues with records of good patron behaviour
“I want to take this opportunity to thank the Parliamentary Committee, which a cross-party committee, for coming up with about 40 recommendations in relation to Sydney’s night-time economy,” Berejiklian continued.
“We’ve adopted the vast majority of those recommendations, and we look forward to having them implemented from January 14.”
Some of those recommendations include removal of restrictions on serving drinks in glass cups after midnight, and allowing small bars to up their capacity from 100 to 120.
The NSW-wide ban on bottleshops trading past 10pm will be pushed back to midnight, except Sundays where it will be 11pm.
However, shortly after announcing their repeal, the Premier threatened that she won’t be afraid to bring the laws back in if significant violence returns to the areas in question.
“I don’t want to sound like we are going to take them away after 12 months but if things deteriorate again we will need to look at them again.”
Labor’s John Graham welcomed the decision to “finally” lift the laws, however he warned that it may take some time to repair the damage they have done to the Sydney night time economy.
“The Government finally responds on the lockout laws,” he tweeted.
“There is a lot more to do to repair the economic damage from their botched implementation.”
The Government finally responds on the lockout laws. Lifted Jan 14th. There is a lot more to do to repair the economic damage from their botched implementation.#nswpol https://t.co/lmOXFjcr0p
— John Graham (@JohnGrahamALP) November 28, 2019