Alan Jones slams NSW Premier Mike Baird over Sydney lockout laws

SHOCK jock Alan Jones has laid into the NSW Premier, asking why you can shoot up heroin in Kings Cross but can’t buy a bottle of chardonnay.

State Funeral For Nancy Bird-Walton Takes Place In Sydney

RADIO shock jock Alan Jones has furiously laid into NSW Premier Mike Baird, denouncing the controversial lockout laws as “stark, raving mad” and questioning why shooting up heroin is tolerated in Sydney’s party district of Kings Cross but buying a bottle of wine after 10pm is banned.

The angry diatribe from Jones came as the Premier appeared to soften his stance on the state’s alcohol regulations, which impose 1.30am lockouts and 3am mandatory closing of bars and clubs across Sydney’s CBD, and insisted a review of the rules was not a foregone conclusion.

On Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa radio show on Thursday, Mr Baird said he was surprised by the response to a Facebook post earlier this week in which he defended the lockouts.

“It’s a huge outpouring and there are two sides to the debate,” he said.

Despite writing on social media that it would take a lot for him to be persuaded to ditch the lockouts, on the show he said he was open to alternative proposals during the upcoming inquiry to be led by former High Court judge Ian Callinan.

“Certainly my encouragement would be to use the inquiry that will be undertaken to put forward those proposals. I think they are entirely valid to put forward and certainly they will be considered,” Mr Baird said.

Alan Jones took a swipe at NSW Premier Mike Baird on his top rating morning show on Friday.

LOCKOUTS WOULD NOT HAVE STOPPED ATTACK

However, it wasn’t enough to placate Jones, who on Friday morning questioned the entire basis for the restrictions.

“We now learn that the NSW Premier may have shifted his stance on lock out laws. He’s at last conceded there are at least two sides to the debate [around these] ridiculous laws. Mike Baird is citing CBD violence is down and pretending this is the great panacea.”

The death of teenager Thomas Kelly, in Kings Cross in 2012, provided the impetus for Sydney’s lockout laws which have seen a reduction in late-night violence in the CBD since they were introduced in 2014. The Kelly family have urged the Premier to maintain the restrictions to prevent further tragedies.

But the 2GB Morning Show host Jones said the laws would have done nothing to prevent Kelly’s death at the hands of Kieran Loveridge who is currently serving 10 years in prison, pointing out the attack happened earlier in the evening and the perpetrator had consumed alcohol purchased hours beforehand.

“Remember Loveridge hadn’t been inside a licensed premises in Kings Cross. Put another way if the current rules were in place when Loveridge was loose in Kings Cross nothing in the legislation would have stopped Loveridge,” he said during an interview with Freelancer.com CEO Matt Barrie whose 8000 word vent last week reignited the lockout debate.

Thomas Kelly who died following an attack in Kings Cross in 2012. Picture: Supplied.

MINDLESS OVERREACTION

“I’m telling you this because the stark raving mad (NSW) Government thinks that the lockout laws have solved the problem of alcohol fuelled violence,” Jones said.

“It’s a mindless over-reaction. Businesses have gone broke and the city has been shut down and this is precisely what’s going to happen in Queensland with politicians distorting reality.”

Jones questioned why, if the restrictions were so vital, there was an exemption for New Year’s Eve and said it made no sense that Kings Cross hosted an injecting room for drug users yet people were limited in the times they could consume alcohol.

“You can shoot up heroin in Kings Cross but you can’t buy a bottle of chardonnay after 10pm,” he said.

“You and I can’t be trusted to buy a bottle of wine on the way home for the theatre because were likely to belt someone but we can fill our veins with an illegal substance and walk the streets like a zombie capable of God knows what.

“Has anyone in Macquarie St got half a brain?” he pondered.

NSW Premier Mike Baird enjoying a beer.

FAIR DINKUM

Jones said if politicians were, “fair dinkum about reducing alcohol related violence,” they would ban adverts promoting cheap booze. “They buy it, fill up, come into the city and cause damage and if it’s not Kings Cross it’ll be somewhere else.”

Lamenting the downturn in visitors to the CBD late at night and the closure of many once-famous venues, including Hugo’s Bar and Jimmy Liks in the Cross, Jones said: “How can we be an international city with this kind of attitude from politicians?”