Debate over Sydney lockout laws escalates as #casinomike trends online
Safe to say, it has not been a good week for New South Wales Premier Mike Baird.
The social media-friendly politician was exposed to the dark side of Facebook and Twitter as the backlash against Sydney's controversial lockout laws continued to grow. For those who don't know, the lockout laws prohibit entry to clubs and bars after 1:30 a.m., with alcohol service cut at 3 a.m., in Sydney's city centre. You also can't buy alcohol to take home after 10 p.m. state-wide.
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Things kicked off on Feb. 4, when CEO and founder of Freelancer.com, Matt Barrie, posted an essay on LinkedIn that swiftly went viral. In it, he detailed the severe impact the laws had had on the city's reputation and nightlife.
A Facebook tragedy
Baird decided Facebook was the way to face the criticism head on. It was not.
"The number of small bars in Sydney have doubled in the same period," Baird claimed on Facebook Tuesday, calling counter arguments "hysterical."
"We introduced laws to curb violence and to eliminate drinking ghettos by redistributing the nightlife across the city, making the whole city more vibrant," Baird wrote. He praised the policy as something that is "clearly improving" the city.
More than 10,000 comments have been made at the time of writing, the majority of which lambast Baird's statistics claiming that violence has dropped, and his belief that the city is "safer and more vibrant than ever." Others lamented that businesses and livelihoods have already been destroyed, with many venues forced to close, and warned that Sydney had become a no fun "nanny state."
Image: Mike Baird/Facebook
Image: Mike Baird/Facebook
Facebook users also complained that Baird's team were deleting comments, a claim that his social media manager denied to News Corp.
The wrong statistics
In his Facebook post, Baird pointed to statistics that show a "42.2 percent reduction" of alcohol-related assaults in Sydney's Central Business District (CBD), and an "over 60 per cent" drop in the nightlife hub, Kings Cross.
Those numbers were refuted Wednesday by NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research director, Don Weatherburn, who told 702 ABC Radio that Baird's quoted statistics were not accurate — there was already a downward trend occurring since 2008.
In fact, according to Weatherburn, when factoring in the downward trend, there's only been a 40% reduction in Kings Cross, and a 20% reduction in the Sydney CBD. "You can't really compare before and after if the assaults are already on their way down," Weatherburn told the station. "What lockout laws did is accelerate that downward trend, so it fell even faster after the lockout laws."
#Casinomike trends
One issue that really has people heated up is that wealthy casino owners have been able to have their venues exempted from the lockout laws. This inspired a trending hashtag on Twitter Wednesday, #casinomike.
Needless to say, #casinomike had people truly inspired.
Musicians speak out
Australia's music community has also stood up to attack the lockout laws this week, with some saying they would simply not exist as artists if the lockout laws had been in place while they were building their careers.
DJ Alison Wonderland, for one, wrote an impassioned letter on why international artists avoid Sydney.
Is this a tipping point?
Baird is yet to say more following his unfortunate Facebook post.
The groundswell of anger and media coverage may prove to be a challenge for the lockout laws, which are up for review in February 2016, two years after they were implemented.
"Over the coming months a detailed review into the effects of the lock-out laws will be undertaken. I await this work with interest," Baird wrote on Facebook. Word of advice, though: Perhaps "hysterical" is not the best way to talk about people's legitimate concerns.
