Lockout laws: Violence has been pushed into neighbouring suburbs

IT’S long been suspected that Sydney’s lockout laws have caused the violence that once plagued Kings Cross to spill into the suburbs. Now there’s proof.

THE violence that once plagued Sydney’s King Cross has declined in the notorious night strip but spilt over into neighbouring suburbs since the controversial lockout laws were introduced.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research study has found that assaults in areas just outside Sydney’s late-night lockout zones have risen between 11.8 per cent and 16.7 per cent in those spillover areas, such as Newtown, Bondi, Coogee and Double Bay.

“It remains the case, however, that the decline in assaults in Kings Cross and the Sydney CBD is still much larger than the increase in assaults in the displacement areas,” BOSCAR director Don Weatherburn said in a statement on Monday.

“Overall, there was a net reduction in violence during the 32-month post-reform period.”

The hotly debated lockout laws were introduced in 2014 with the government on Monday saying there is no plan to expand the scope of the existing lockout area.

The laws came into effect off the back of widespread violence and several random one-punch attacks that included the deaths of Thomas Kelly, 18, and Daniel Christie, 18, who were both targeted by strangers in separate incidents on the nightstrip and killed.

Former premier Mike Baird slightly relaxed the laws in January, with closing times for venues in Sydney’s CBD and Kings Cross pushed back from 1.30am to 2am, while the last drinks rule has been extended another 30 minutes to 3.30am as part of a two-year trial.

The reprieve though only applies to venues that provide live entertainment, with nightclubs, strip clubs and karaoke bars missing out on the extensions.

Five venues have now been granted extensions to lockout and last drinks times, with Liquor & Gaming NSW considering applications from a further 19 venues.

Easing the lockout laws was one of the key recommendations of an independent review into the legislation overseen by former High Court judge Ian Callinan, but many Sydneysiders who blame the laws for decimating Sydney’s night-life, have argued it’s not enough.

Minister for Racing Paul Toole said on Monday the reduction in violence in Kings Cross and the CBD far outweighs the displacement of alcohol-related violence, with a net decrease of more than 600 incidents.

Mr Toole said the government will continue to address alcohol-related violence wherever it occurs and work to improving public safety in and around all licensed venues and night-time entertainment precincts.

— with AAP

Originally published as Lockout laws: Violence has been pushed into neighbouring suburbs