520 Drunk? Fine. $125
Hear, hear ... a voice of reason
begging Sydneysiders to voice their opinions ... to “regain our independence and
sense of excitement, because at night our streets have become soulless.” What
has happened? At 1:30am our entertainment hotspots shut down, no more entry to
bars and discos: Bugger off, go home, let mummy tuck you in, sleep well. The
reason is that some louts used to get drunk and beat up others [and - in three
cases - killed them: Thomas Kelly (2012), Daniel Christie (2013), Barry Lyttle
(2015)]; passers-by they didn’t have anything to do with, but which they beat
up anyway. The solution was to shut the city down at 1:30am.
It’s called “The Lockout”, and since
it was introduced, the government can cite a 40 per cent drop
in Kings Cross assaults as proof of success. In truth, however, a simultaneous
84 per cent drop in custom means a Kings Cross pedestrian is actually
almost three times more likely to be assaulted now than before
(Elizabeth Farrelly, SMH, 23 April 2015).
Yeah; right; great: Why stop there, the
assault rate at Kings Cross can easily be reduced further, in fact to zero ... just shut the joint down entirely.
This is the thing: The Lockout laws
didn’t achieve much other than shifting violence … and, of course, rendering
the city a desert after midnight. And this is probably unique in the world for
a place that would like to call itself a world-city … and which was highly
praised in yesterdays SMH editorial for being just that; in fact, the
editorial: “Sydney: Glorious one day, vibrant and buzzy the next,” called
Sydney the best city in the world. Which shuts down its entertainment quarters
at 1:30am. Give us a break, says the voice of reason.
So let’s call a spade a spade: To
deem it an anomaly that a city like Sydney shuts its entertainment quarters
down at 1:30am is the understatement of the decade. Because neither the opening
times of alcohol-serving venues nor the availability of take-away alcohol are
the problem: The problem is Sydney’s (Australia's?) drinking culture; that is
what needs to be addressed. Where does one start? With education in schools?
Surely, but the next step should be a zero-tolerance approach to drunkenness in
public. This means similar consequences as are in place for drink-driving, i.e.
if one is caught drunk in public, fine, $125 the first time, $250 the second
time, $500 thereafter etc. Soon offenders will not have money left for alcohol:
Problem solved. Sydney can stay open.
But alcohol related violence at Kings Cross is only the tip of the iceberg; alcohol abuse is a major social and health issue. In fact alcohol kills 15 people per day in Australia ... 5,554 in 2010 - ABC News (in the same year there were 1,193 road fatalities). These are alcohol related illnesses ... add to that statistic the problem of domestic violence to get a full picture of the devastating effect of alcohol abuse.
Alcohol abuse costs the Australian economy
$36 billion a year (ABC).
So, some people's favourite pastime is getting shit-faced ... but at what cost?
I - for one - reckon it should be 'user pays'.
OK, let me come clean: I'm not a 'user'. And it is the last thing on my mind to go out there and get a drink at 3:00am ... but this is the thing: I sure as hell is on fire hate to be told that I cannot. That is the point ... I pretty much don't drink at all, and I'm to bed at nine (up at five ... for meditation). So I am not one who ever is 'locked out', but it is a question of principle ... even a question of personal freedom; nothing less. Get lost with your bloody Lockout Laws ... they suck.