No Mardi Gras lockout, please Premier
CITY of Sydney Liberal councillor Christine Forster has written to the premier, urging her to consider a temporary relaxation of the state’s lockout laws for the 40th anniversary Mardi Gras parade next month.
Central Sydney
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A BID to relax Sydney’s controversial lockout laws for this year’s Mardi Gras festival has reached Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s office.
City of Sydney Liberal councillor Christine Forster has written to the premier, urging her to consider a temporary relaxation of the state’s lockout laws for the Mardi Gras parade in March — which marks the festival’s 40th anniversary and is expected to attract several hundred thousand people to Darlinghurst.
The relaxation would be a “gesture of goodwill,” Cr Forster writes in the letter, seen by Central Sydney.
“Such a gesture would have a particular resonance with the LGBTI community,” of which many members “still hold raw memories” of the treatment they received while marching in the first parade in 1978, she said.
The relaxation would reinvigorate Oxford St, which, Cr Forster argues, did not have the same history of violence that Kings Cross had, and could serve as a trial and provide some evidence towards supporting a wider relaxation of the 1.30am lockout laws in place around the inner city.
Previous exceptions have been made in the Kings Cross and Oxford St precinct for New Year’s Eve.
The proposal has gained the support of Keep Sydney Open.
Given the increased number of revellers who will be forced to spill out onto the streets at the same time, director Tyson Koh said the organisation was in favour of staggered closing times, which was best practise around the world.
“We think it would serve as the perfect event to qualify for an exemption,” Mr Koh said.
A spokesman for the premier said it was in the process of responding to Cr Forster’s letter.