Reclaim the Streets protest challenges NSW lockouts

Approximately 3,000 people took part in the public rally against the NSW Government’s lockout laws yesterday.

The peaceful rally was put together to push back against Sydney’s controversial 1:30am lockout laws, which were set into place in February last year following two alcohol-fuelled deaths and several acts of violence in the Kings Cross area.

As many as 16 venues across the city have blamed the lockout laws for their closures. Those venues include: Hugo's Lounge, Trademark Hotel, The Backroom, Soho, Flinder's Bar and Q Bar.

The rally, organised by and named Reclaim the Streets, took protesters through Kings Cross and up to Taylor Square on Oxford Street. Reclaim The Streets organisers told TMN they had around 2,000 attendees as they moved through the streets and more joined them when they reached Taylor Square. Some of the slogans painted on revellers’ signs read: “Unlock Sydney”, “We Want Our City Back’, and “Double Standards, Star City The Most Corrupt & Violent Venue, Open 24 Hrs, WTF”.

One report from the Legislative Assembly Committee On Law And Safety last November found more and more people are turning to illicit drugs as they are more available after lockout when alcohol isn’t. It also found the laws created displacement of people who are turning to underground rave and warehouse parties once they are locked out of venues in the Kings Cross area.  Another report found violence had been displaced from the Kings Cross area to Newtown, which has seen an 18% rise in violent acts.

"The main issue is they don't solve the problem, they push it [to] the neighbouring suburb," Reclaim the Streets spokeswoman Amanda Sordes told the Sydney Morning Herald. "The drunk people come to Newtown because they can't go to anywhere else in Kings Cross."

The laws are due for review in February, 2016 and the NSW Government is yet to comment on the rally.

Image Credit: Joachim Pforr