News

Building a vibrant city nightlife

Sydney’s notorious lockout laws virtually killed the CBD but as there to remove the laws Miriam Cosic looks for new lights in the city's nightlife.

20 Sep 2019 12:00

Miriam Cosic

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Writing and Publishing

The NSW government concedes the lockout laws had a dampening effect on Sydney nightlife. Image Shutterstock.

In 2014, lockout laws were introduced across Sydney to reduce alcohol-fuelled violence after the shock one-punch deaths of two young men, Daniel Christie and Thomas Kelly, in separate incidents in Kings Cross.

Licensed premises were required to lock out new customers at 1.30am and stop serving alcohol by 3am. It made little sense because the young men’s deaths occurred at 8pm and 9.30pm.

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Miriam Cosic

About the Author

Miriam Cosic is a journalist and author, and Arts and Literary editor of the Australian (1996-2012). She also wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald from1993-96, and is currently a freelance contributor to The Saturday Paper, The Monthly, The Guardian among others. Born in Melbourne, she now lives in Sydney and is the author of Only Child (1999) and Right to Die: An Examination of the Euthanasia Debate (2003).