In (what we now call) the most obvious report of the year, the Committee of Sydney has determined that Sydney’s night-time economy isn’t very good and we should probably do something about it.
Groundbreaking stuff, I know.
The report sets forward four ways to improve Sydney’s nightlife: expanding the diversity of night-time activities, effective governance and regulation (that’s not a shot at Mike Baird’s lockout laws, no not at all), integration of planning and transport so that everyone can actually get around the place, and the promotion of Sydney as a 24 hour city. The full report is available here if you want to have a squiz.
All this is pretty obvious but the government did spend a year doing it, so hopefully that means they’ll take it seriously and actually do something. To be honest though, they shouldn’t have bothered, we already did the work for them in our After the Lockouts feature film made last year. Ours is a lot more entertaining too, and didn’t cost any tax-payer’s money. But you know, credit where credits due, at least it looks like they’re taking the issue seriously and considering the effects of their state-imposed bedtime curfew:
“…the Commission believes that it is fair to conclude that the lockout laws have contributed to perception that the vibrancy of the night-time offer in Sydney has declined and, as a result, the reputation of Sydney as a global city has been detrimentally impacted.”
The report also gave us this hilarious graph of just how far behind Sydney’s night-time economy is compared to other global cities :
The report also recommends the implementation of a Minister for Nightlife, who as the name suggests, would deal exclusively with Sydney’s nightlife economy. The Chair for the Committee of Sydney, Michael Rose, explained this recommendation:
“At the moment you’ve got licensing laws, you’ve got local councils governing land use and you’ve got transport decisions being made by another entity…We think it’s really important for there to be a single coordinating person looking at how to maximise the benefit of the evening for the people who live in Sydney.”
Basically they want someone to focus entirely on nightlife so that maybe it won’t be such a shemozzle anymore.
If you’re interested in what’s wrong with Sydney’s nightlife and don’t want to read a boring 29 page report, I recommend heading over to afterthelockouts.com to catch the details in FIB’s own exclusive documentary on Sydney’s controversial lockout laws.
