Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 156 posts

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#51

Post by girvo »

chris_wot wrote: post #36
EdwardDiego wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh God. I travelled to Newcastle to meet friends and went out on the town on a Friday night. My big mistake was waiting until 10:30pm to depart, because nearly everything was closed or getting ready to close at midnight - Newcastle's "favourite cocktail bar" was unable to make any cocktails. I'm from Christchurch, and we have a better nightlife than Newcastle, and our CBD got smooshed by an earthquake.

Your chances of being assaulted in Newcastle before the lockout laws were very high. I doubt you would be having much fun in the Emergency Department, getting stitched up.

Other countries, who drink more than us Aussies do and have zero lockout laws don't have the problems we apparently do with violence.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#52

Post by vacri »

jeromyevans wrote: post #12
stevebmark wrote: post #4

I'm an outsider to Sydney and Australia, and I'm a regular visitor. This article rings of an insider perspective, full of "we" statements. It has a vibe of personal anger and personal overreaction. What I'm genuinely curious about is the events that lead to the formation of these laws. Again, as an outsider, the main thing to do in Sydney is drink. A lot. The main thing my friends want to do after work in Sydney is d…

I lived there at the time the lockout was introduced. There was a small number of alcohol-fuelled fights that resulted in the deaths of some young men by head trauma (punched or falling). They were very prominent. I'm not sure if there was really increasing trend in violence, but perception in the media was that of a crisis (as they do). The government reacted with little planning (as they do). For example, the "one…

From your link, the law may be nicknamed 'one punch', but the details aren't actually specific to a single punch - instead they are simply more severe a penalty if the person dies as a result of the assault, with a bizarre minimum if the offender was intoxicated (apparently if you think clearly about it beforehand, you're not as bad...)

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#53

Post by girvo »

chris_wot wrote: post #38
sydneysider wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of destroying small business and bringing in laws which detrimentally affect everyone, the state government should create examples of the offenders (the idiots that thing its cool to knock someone out), throw the book at them. strengthen the laws in a way that limits the potential for misuse, but sends a strong message to the drunken yobs, "if you do this, you're toast". These lockout laws don't fix anything,…

The media did. There's not much point in making an example out of drunk people, because violent drunk people aren't thinking of the consequences. The only way of making this work would be a register of offenders who can't go to pubs because of their drunkenness. Given that we tried to have mandatory pre-commitment for gamblers (which allowed them to gamble, but put limits on it) and this utterly failed, I'm not surpr…

> Incidentally, do you have any facts to back up that lockout laws are "sabotaging" the NSW economy?

Not the economy, but they're killing the nightlife and live music sector. You may not care about that, but I do.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#54

Post by reitanqild »

Sounds like Norway. I'm not much into drinks but there is a long-running joke (?) here that you cannot pour spirit into wine (spurit up/strengthening the wine), but you can very well pour wine into spirit (watering out the spirit). I think it goes back to the 70ties.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#55

Post by vacri »

cheerioty wrote: post #3

Reads like a joke, but is actually the bloody truth. In the last 6 months, ordering my favourite mix drink resulted in either: - Getting the drink, but had to drink it at the bar were they could "supervise" me! (no joke!) - Getting the drink, only when ordered seperately and "promise" to not mix it in the same glass - Get the first one, second one denied - Direct rejection, because "too late already/wrong day of the…

You could come down to Melbourne, it's got a very healthy nightlife and music scene. It has a little bit of wowserism happening at the moment (no new licenses for bars open past 1am anymore, for example, and some more restrictions on 'music pubs'), but as far as I'm aware, no legislation about timing requirements on mixed drinks (which sounds truly crazy). The main article reads like a horror story for nightlife.

It's a problem in Australian politics in general at the moment - there's a lot of conservative christian politicians in power at the federal level, and at some state levels, and they don't reflect modern australian values. One clear example is around gay marriage, which poll after poll shows the people overwhelmingly want (usually 70-80% support by respondents), but both major parties have too many conservative christians for that argument to fly. Same thing with late-night clubbing, methinks.

Still, it's better than it was 50 years ago when bars had to close at 6pm :)

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#56

Post by madaxe_again »

hanoz wrote: post #34
cheerioty wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jägermeister+RedBull ... Don't judge me ;)

Have you considered the UK, where on occasions one can easily feel like the only one in the pub not drinking Jägerbombs, and drinking to massive excess generally is a proud national pastime.

Actually, in the UK, it is illegal to serve pre-mixed caffeine and alcohol, but it's rarely enforced. This is why many bars will pour the shot in a highball, and hand you a can of red bull, so what you then do is your responsibility, not theirs.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#57

Post by fit2rule »

mking1024 wrote: post #15
basicplus2 wrote: post #2

sounds like its more like Perth now...

Perth is actually doing an excellent job shaking off the 'dullsville' tag. A lot of restrictions have eased and the city is flourishing as a result. Hopefully even more so in the next few years with projects such as Elizabeth Quay and the Northbridge City Link finishing up.

Hell, Perth is doing everything it can to booze itself up .. it is after all, one of the first Australian cities to just let the Casino mafia take over.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#58

Post by madaxe_again »

chris_wot wrote: post #36
EdwardDiego wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh God. I travelled to Newcastle to meet friends and went out on the town on a Friday night. My big mistake was waiting until 10:30pm to depart, because nearly everything was closed or getting ready to close at midnight - Newcastle's "favourite cocktail bar" was unable to make any cocktails. I'm from Christchurch, and we have a better nightlife than Newcastle, and our CBD got smooshed by an earthquake.

Your chances of being assaulted in Newcastle before the lockout laws were very high. I doubt you would be having much fun in the Emergency Department, getting stitched up.

I have no info on what effect the licensing changes had, but I can vouch that Newcastle could be genuinely scary on a Saturday night. You haven't lived until you've hidden under a table while pint glass missiles hurtle overhead around a revolving dance floor on a boat on the Tyne.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#59

Post by switch007 »

hanoz wrote: post #34
cheerioty wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jägermeister+RedBull ... Don't judge me ;)

Have you considered the UK, where on occasions one can easily feel like the only one in the pub not drinking Jägerbombs, and drinking to massive excess generally is a proud national pastime.

If you don't start drinking at 5pm on a Friday, puke up twice, consume your body weight in kebab meat and then go for a greasy fry-up in the morning, you're basically a boring sod.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#60

Post by Symbiote »

madaxe_again wrote: post #56
hanoz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered the UK, where on occasions one can easily feel like the only one in the pub not drinking Jägerbombs, and drinking to massive excess generally is a proud national pastime.

Actually, in the UK, it is illegal to serve pre-mixed caffeine and alcohol, but it's rarely enforced. This is why many bars will pour the shot in a highball, and hand you a can of red bull, so what you then do is your responsibility, not theirs.

Are you sure? I can't find anything online that supports that. Many bars serve other drinks (vodka and orange, gin and tonic, etc) unmixed, so you can mix it to taste.

Buckfast is still sold, and that contains caffeine. Kahlúa too.

Post reply on HN