Premier Mike Baird has responded to claims that NSW has become a nanny state and the Sydney’s night-life is dead. Picture: Britta Campion/ The Australian
NSW Premier Mike Baird has returned fire on Sydney’s lockout laws, branding claims they have turned the city into a ghost town “hysterical”.
In a scathingly non-apologetic Facebook post Baird said the lockout laws had “neither shut down the city, nor killed its night-life”.
“Let’s start with a statistic about Sydney’s night-life that matters: alcohol related assaults have decreased by 42.2 per cent in the CBD since we introduced the ‘lockout laws’, and they’re down by over 60 per cent in Kings Cross,” Baird wrote.
“But … didn’t we achieve this by shutting down the whole city and killing its night-life?
“Well, one last statistic: the number of small bars in Sydney has more than doubled in the same time period.
“There has been a growing hysteria this week about night-life in Sydney.
“The main complaints seem to be that you can’t drink till dawn any more and you can’t impulse-buy a bottle of white after 10pm.
“I understand that this presents an inconvenience. Some say this makes us an international embarrassment.
“Except, assaults are down by 42.2 per cent.
“And there is nothing embarrassing about that.”
The original author of the 8000-word rant that prompted the debate, businessman Matt Barrie, was quick to return fire, replying on via Facebook with a few statistics of his own.
“I am glad you finally found your social media logins,” he replied to Baird.
“Here’s a statistic for you … 927,000 reads of my article, and of 950 comments, 84.9 per cent agreed that you have destroyed the city’s reputation, small business, jobs or Sydney’s social and cultural fabric, 8.75 were neutral and only 6.4 per cent agreed with you.”
Baird said lockout laws from the outset had been about “facing a serious problem” and happily wore accusations they were about “moralising”.
“Violence had spiralled out of control, people were literally being punched to death in the city, and there were city streets too dangerous to stroll down on a Friday night,” he said.
“The community was rightly outraged. I met face to face with the families of victims. You don’t need to see that sort of pain too often to realise there is a problem that needs fixing.
“Now, some have suggested these laws are really about moralising. They are right.
“These laws are about the moral obligation we have to protect innocent people from drunken violence.
“Now some, who wish to define our city by one street on Kings Cross, make the hysterical claim that Sydney is dead.
“They couldn’t be more wrong. This is the greatest city in the world and it is now safer and more vibrant than ever.
“Long Live Sydney.”
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