According to a recent statement from St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst, the lockout laws have done a bloody good job at lowering alcohol-related violence.
While the simple fact that ‘less people on the streets will lead to less violence’ seems to have magically slipped the minds and statistical wrap-ups of health professionals statewide, Professor Gordian Fulde from St Vincent’s is adamant that the lockout laws are working.
He compared the data of the past 12 lockout-lawed months to the 12 before it, and found the following results:
“It showed that there was decrease all through the week but the most significant decrease was over the weekend.”“High alcohol time was Friday night to Sunday morning and it showed a 25 per cent decrease in seriously injured patients coming in over the weekend.”
Wait, we’re confused. There is barely a soul to be seen on the streets of the once-great Kings Cross during the week, and a tiny amount of people on the weekends (comparatively to pre-lockout laws)… yet the rate of alcohol-related violence has only dropped by 25%?
Fulde also said that ‘anecdotally’, there has been no rise in alcohol-related violence reported from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, which is the closest hospital to Newtown. This might come as a surprise to Newtown residents, many of whom say they no longer head out on weekends due to a tremendous surge in drunk people along King St and Enmore Rd.
Despite Fulde’s adamance of booze-related violence not being pushed out to the inner West, many individual anecdotes from partygoers/residents of Newtown (who would like to remain anonymous for personal reasons) include reports of feeling vulnerable or nervous, being catcalled or verbally abused, or even being physically and/or verbally assaulted in restrooms of LGBTQI bars (from members of the LGBTQI community).
Funde also said this: “In the first year there wasn’t any shift or people going out and bashing each other up somewhere else.”
But, stats say otherwise. Here’s the most recent hotspot map from NSW Government BOCSAR, very clearly showing the shift of alcohol-related violence to other suburbs. You might notice that the black spot (indicating high levels of violence) in Kings Cross is slightly smaller, while it has increased dramatically in Pyrmont, which happens to house the only zoned venue exempt from the lockout laws, The Star Casino. WEIRD.
So look; we’re not trying to be dicks here. But, when the laws are only reducing the issue by 25% in problematic areas (yet increasing in other areas), but continue to ruin the nightlife, trade and existence of small local businesses, and simultaneously ruin Sydney’s once-great reputation as a bustling, lively capital – is it worth it?
It’s almost like the problem is our ingrained cultural habit of linking alcohol to violence, or something. Hear us out, but wouldn’t it be like, so totally cray-cray if we tried to tackle the fundamental problem, instead of doing the standard ‘bandaids for bulletwounds‘ thing that we always do?
‘Nah, will take too much time/effort/money.’ – a proverb by all Australian government bodies, ever.
via ABC.
Image: Luke Reynolds via Getty Images.
