News.com.au asks backpackers and Kings Cross business people the question on everyone's lips.
Sydney is now a joke.
BACKPACKERS who have travelled half a world to sample Sydney’s “thriving night-life” say they’re staying in their rooms and “drinking goon” instead.
What was supposed to be a holiday filled with long days in the sun and long nights on the town is instead tempered by rules they’ve never seen before.
The version of Kings Cross sold to them in stories from fellow travellers does not stack up to the present day reality, where the long arm of the law has stretched inside venues and pulled the life right out of them.
Is Sydney dead like many say it is? According to travellers who expected something different, the answer is a resounding yes.
“In the hostel, the party is better,” German backpacker Nikita Doerr said.
“The people are good. The town is really beautiful. The night-life is not so good. In Germany (it) is better.”
Nikita spent the night before our interview in the Summer House hostel not far from Darlinghurst Rd, a strip of bars and clubs and restaurants with a fascinating history but maybe not much of a future.
He said he didn’t know exactly what to make of the 1.30am lockouts, the 3am end-of-service and the 10pm restriction on the sale of liquor.
“Last night I’m here in the hostel with the guys. We play with the cards and drink goon.Night-life is not so good. It’s not fun. 3am is a really, really (early) time (to stop serving alcohol).
Nikita Doerr stays in his hostel and drinks goon instead of going out.Source:News Corp Australia
“It’s a new experience for me. In Germany we go out later, we go 11pm in the club first time, last parties go (until 7am). It’s better. It’s funny.”
Santiago Racioppi, from Argentina, told us he was shocked by the “very strict and extreme laws”.
“I heard that here was lots of fun to go out, to gather with friends, but then when I got here I could notice there are too many laws and regulations about what you can do and what you can’t do which, for me coming from where I’m from, was at first really hard for me to understand.
“Since I’m a foreigner here I try to respect the law but it was somehow annoying. I didn’t understand why.”
Michael Miller, a Scottish tourist, said he expected Sydney’s party capital to be more of a party.
“For the night-life, I expected it to be a lot more hustle and bustle, a lot busier. I expected it to be a bit more lively to be perfectly honest with you.”
Canadian traveller Lizzy Somer arrived in Sydney via Cairns on Thursday. She had no idea the lockout laws existed or what they meant for her experience.
“I did not expect that actually. That was a complete surprise.”
Hostel owners and managers say the glitter strip is a ghost town. Jade Smith has owned and operated the Jackaroo Hostel near Kings Cross train station for five years. He knows what it was like before and he’s disappointed by how it’s changed.
“Prior to two years ago there was way more bars, restaurants, takeaway places, places to go at night,” he told news.com.au.
“One by one they just kind of dwindled. There’s loads of empty shops out there. Now you’ve got minimal places to send backpackers so they tend to stay in and drink. The hostels are still OK but the food places and the bars, I don’t think they can continue to go on the way they’re going.”
Scottish backpacker Michael Miller says he’s been surprised by the strict laws in Sydney.Source:News Corp Australia
He said tourists are sold on a promise of something bigger and better than what they see when they arrive in Sydney.
“They’re a bit surprised that we’re supposed to be this great, thriving city, but there’s not much thriving at the moment.”
Peter McLeay owns three hostels in Sydney including Kings Cross Backpackers and Mad Monkey Backpackers. He says visitors have changed the way they party to suit the scene.
“Backpackers had a really vibrant night-life to go out to before. It was a really attractive place for backpackers to come to. They’d have social drinks then go out. Now there’s been a real change.
“They tend to stay in the hostels now. The irony is it’s completely unregulated, unsupervised drinking. Instead of going out and drinking in a safe environment, backpackers will sit in a hostel, have a five litre cask of goon and get blatantly drunk. It’s doing more damage than good.”
Business owners in Kings Cross are selling up and moving elsewhere.Source:News Corp Australia
ASSAULTS ARE DOWN
It’s been a difficult few years for operators in the Cross and a difficult week for NSW Premier Mike Baird, who defended the changes and offered an olive branch in the form of a promise to review the legislation.
His nightmare week started when a Facebook rant from a business owner in Kings Cross went viral. Mr Baird tried to calm concerns on social media, citing a reduction in assaults supported anecdotally by emergency room doctors from nearby St Vincent’s Hospital.
“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’, the Premier wrote on Facebook.
“And they’re down by over 60 per cent in Kings Cross. 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.”
He said there “has been a growing hysteria” 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.”
Mr Baird spoke with Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa on Thursday morning. He told listeners he was surprised by the “huge outpouring” over the topic and again urged Sydneysiders to consider both sides of the story.
He asked for their feedback ahead of an official review process, but gave no specifics about when a review would begin.
St Vincent’s Hospital emergency director Gordian Fulde supports the lockouts, so too do the parents of one-punch victim Thomas Kelly, all of whom spoke this week about the need to stand firm in the face of strong opposition.
“Some voices call for the laws to be removed, to go back to the way things were ... as time passes it’s harder for people to remember just what those days were like — but those of us who work on the frontline, we remember. Quite simply, it was a war zone,” Prof Fulde said.
Ralph Kelly, Thomas’ father, said the laws were needed at all costs to protect other parents from the pain of turning off their child’s life support due to alcohol-related violence.
“We watched him turn blue as he suffocated in front of us. No family should ever have to witness that,” he said.
Thomas Kelly died after being punched on his first night out in Kings Cross. His parents hope the laws don’t change for another family’s sake.Source:News Limited
ONE PUNCH VICTIM SPEAKS OUT
Hostel owner Mr Smith said he supported a reduction in assaults, but that there must be a better way to tackle violence. A Potts Point hostel manager, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was “100 per cent against the lockout laws” but “from a managerial point of view we’ve seen a reduction in incidents and it’s made life easier”.
On Wednesday, Max Hardwick-Morris wrote an impassioned plea to the Premier for common sense. Mr Hardwick-Morris was “coward punched” on Australia Day and spent five days in hospital with concussion and a broken fibula. Despite that, he said he was completely against the lockouts.
“As a victim of Sydney’s violence, with full knowledge that my incident could have resulted in my death, I hope my voice can be heard as I feel you’ve used the two unfortunate coward punches that resulted in deaths to further your political agenda,” he wrote.
“Firstly above all else, I would have some mercy with your laws had you included the star casino (NSW’s most violent venue) and Barangaroo in the lockout zones. Excluding these venues/areas, coupled with the fact 13 venues have been given exemptions only to keep pokies room open begs so many questions to be asked about your government’s agenda.
“Mr Baird, you’re killing Sydney’s economy, you’re killing small business, you’re killing Sydney’s music scene, you’re killing Sydney’s reputation, you’re killing the youth’s relationship with the government and you’re killing fun.”
Mr Baird admits it will take “a lot” to make him change his mind “on a policy that is so clearly improving this city”.
“Some, who wish to define our city by one street in 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.”
He finished with three words: “Long live Sydney.” It’s a message shared by stakeholders and tourists, even if they have different opinions on how it can be achieved.
Premier Mike Baird has spoken for the first time since his Facebook post about the controversial lockout laws. Courtesy: Nova FM/Fitzy and Wippa
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