tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/lock-out-laws-25651/articlesLock-out laws – The Conversation2016-06-27T19:29:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/569952016-06-27T19:29:07Z2016-06-27T19:29:07ZBad behaviour in bars and pubs is a problem, but most of Australia’s alcohol is drunk at home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117940/original/image-20160408-23634-1afe7b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Alcohol is cheaper off-premises.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Violence, including <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/cole-miller-death-how-many-onepunch-deaths-does-it-take-20160109-gm2lao.html">one-punch deaths</a>, has drawn attention to alcohol-related harm in and around licensed premises. <a href="https://theconversation.com/early-pub-closing-times-work-for-kings-cross-they-will-for-queensland-too-39643">Policies</a> such as trading hour restrictions and lockout laws in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2016/feb/11/sydneys-lockout-laws-five-key-facts-about-the-citys-alcohol-debate">Sydney</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-18/queensland-parliament-passes-controversial-lockout-laws/7178986">Queensland</a> specifically aim to reduce harms in these settings. </p>
<p>However, bars and pubs are not where most of the risky drinking takes place, so policies also need to consider consumption of alcohol in the home.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jsad.com/">We surveyed</a> more than 2,000 Australians to discover what has largely been unknown in the past: where alcohol is consumed and where risky drinkers drink. We found nearly two-thirds of all alcohol consumed in Australia is drunk in the drinker’s own home.</p>
<p>This is more than five times the amount consumed in pubs, bars and nightclubs combined. This is in part because more people drink at home and those who do drink there more regularly. The average drinking occasion at home involves more than five standard drinks. </p>
<p>More than four standard drinks in one session is enough to exceed the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-topics/alcohol-guidelines">guidelines</a> for avoiding short-term risk of harm. Those wanting to avoid risk of long-term harm should drink less than two drinks per day on average. </p>
<p>Those who do drink more than the NHMRC guidelines to avoid long-term harm drink more than three-quarters of their alcohol at home. In contrast, those who drink above the guidelines to avoid short-term harm drink 40% of their alcohol outside the home. </p>
<p>Interestingly, those whose consumption is above both guidelines drink a similar proportion of their alcohol at home as those who don’t drink in a risky way.</p>
<h2>Young drinkers</h2>
<p>Much of the media attention on risky drinking focuses on young people. Young drinkers drink more of their alcohol in licensed premises than older drinkers do. Males aged 16 to 24 drink 35% of their alcohol at home and 23% at pubs, nightclubs and bars – but 26% is being consumed in other people’s homes. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117941/original/image-20160408-23638-1xvcjbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117941/original/image-20160408-23638-1xvcjbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117941/original/image-20160408-23638-1xvcjbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117941/original/image-20160408-23638-1xvcjbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117941/original/image-20160408-23638-1xvcjbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117941/original/image-20160408-23638-1xvcjbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117941/original/image-20160408-23638-1xvcjbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Alcohol is much cheaper in shops, which is why young people ‘pre-drink’ before they go out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>This group drinks an average of ten standard drinks in a usual occasion at someone else’s home and eight-and-a-half standard drinks at a pub, bar or nightclub. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dar.12117/full">Other research</a> on young Australian risky drinkers found that, on their last “big night” of drinking, the majority of respondents started drinking in their home or someone else’s home. </p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.12138/abstract">Other research</a> has shown one of the reasons young people prefer to drink in private residences is that alcohol is much cheaper when purchased off-premises. Those who are hoping to drink a lot on any one occasion can save a lot of money by drinking at home before going out, or by drinking only at home or at private parties. The best way to address this is by looking at how much we pay for alcohol.</p>
<p>There has been some discussion lately about the way we tax alcohol. While beer and spirits are taxed on alcohol content, wine is taxed by price. This is why you can buy cask wine for as little as <a href="http://www.fare.org.au/wp-content/uploads/research/P153-Goon-show-alcohol-taxation-FINAL.pdf">30 cents per standard drink</a>, but not beer or spirits. </p>
<p><a href="http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/06/23/alcalc.agv066">Heavy drinkers purchase more cheap alcohol</a> than other drinkers. A more evenly applied tax on alcohol could help to discourage the type of heavy drinking that is leading to long-term harms from alcohol. In fact, <a href="http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2009.186007">previous analyses have shown</a> that increases in alcohol price lead to fewer deaths. </p>
<p>There has been a lot of talk about alcohol policy in licensed premises of late, and <a href="http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Documents/CJB/CJB183.pdf">there is good evidence</a> these policies can reduce alcohol-related harm. However, there are huge costs associated with long-term harms from alcohol consumption – and most of the alcohol in Australia is being drunk at home. </p>
<p>With three-quarters of alcohol being consumed in private residences, efforts to reduce harms from alcohol need to focus beyond the night-time economy and include broad measures targeting alcohol purchased to drink at home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Callinan receives funding from the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, the National Health and Medical Research Council and Healthway. The Centre for Alcohol Policy receives its core funding from the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, an independent, charitable organisation working to prevent the harmful use of alcohol in Australia (<a href="http://www.fare.org.au">www.fare.org.au</a>). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Livingston receives funding from the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and the Sax Institute. Michael Livingston is a board member of the Australian Rechabite Foundation, a charitable foundation which supports research and community projects relevant to reducing alcohol related harm. The Centre for Alcohol Policy receives its core funding from the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education.</span></em></p>Most risky drinking happens at home, so policies need to focus on the price of alcohol sold off-premises rather than lockout and other venue-based laws.Sarah Callinan, Research Fellow at the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe UniversityMichael Livingston, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/558212016-03-17T03:21:33Z2016-03-17T03:21:33ZBeyond lockouts: Sydney needs to become a more inclusive city<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114374/original/image-20160308-22143-1twkpp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The critical issues underlying the debate about Sydney’s nightlife include worsening inequality and who is getting left behind.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Richard Ashen</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent weeks debate on the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2016/feb/11/sydneys-lockout-laws-five-key-facts-about-the-citys-alcohol-debate">regulation of Sydney’s nightlife</a> has escalated. Thus far it has largely been pitched as a battle between night-time businesses struggling with lockout and last-drinks laws, and a “nanny state” government.</p>
<p>But there is much more at stake. Our <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08111146.2016.1155983">newly published research</a> focused on Surry Hills – one of Sydney’s <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/surry-hills-is-citys-hot-spot-of-creativity-gps-study-reveals-20100606-xn83.html">cultural and night-time hubs</a> – found that underlying the nightlife debate are the critical issues of Sydney’s worsening inequality, aspirations to govern Sydney as an enterprising “global” city, and who gets left behind. </p>
<p>At stake is <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0309-1317.2003.00492.x/abstract;jsessionid=8342D39C2170C90E82FEF6DB0927C95B.f02t02">“the right to the city”</a>. Currently, it seems many are being denied this right.</p>
<h2>Is a global city a divided city?</h2>
<p>Much of the recent debate between the anti- and pro-lockouts camps has focused on Sydney’s <a href="http://www.keepsydneyopen.com/#about">status as a global city</a>. The former group claims this is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-21/about-8000-protest-against-sydney-lockout-laws/7187372">being eroded</a> as Sydney’s cultural life wanes. </p>
<p>For years, governments have strived for global city status through economic targets that view culture as a saleable commodity. But this underplays its intrinsic values. It ignores grassroots culture and the spaces in which developing artists network and evolve. </p>
<p>Sydney’s global city status <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/40643231?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">has also deepened</a> its socioeconomic divide. The city faces a raft of inequality issues – from <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/will-changes-to-negative-gearing-make-houses-more-affordable-20160219-gmy9wp.html">manic property market activity</a> excluding lower-income residents to the obfuscation of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-01/here's-what-the-latest-political-donations-data-doesn't-tell-us/7130126">political donations</a> and the impacts of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/poker-machine-profits-come-from-sydneys-poorest-suburbs-20151023-gkh7j4.html">poker machines</a> in poor suburbs.</p>
<p>An underlying geographical divide lurks in the debate over Sydney’s nightlife. This is manifest in the anti-lockout protestors’ claim that it is not them who should be punished for the actions of a few troublemakers. Nightlife users in Sydney <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2015.12154.x/full">view particular groups</a> of people as problematic. Consequently, the cultural changes needed to make Sydney’s nightlife safer are <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/lock-out-laws-shut-down-sydneys-oxford-street-20140827-108xej.html">seen as separate</a> from those protesting the laws.</p>
<p>This “othering” has long been presented geographically. Troublemakers are seen to be from areas of Sydney away from its inner suburbs. Underlying this discrimination are <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649360500452806">historical legacies</a> that have seen Sydney <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0004918022000028725">expand</a> exponentially while becoming more sociospatially divided. </p>
<h2>Faux consultation</h2>
<p>Critics of the lockout laws are rightfully angry at the lack of prior community consultation by the NSW government. But their frustrating experience is part of a wider trend.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08111146.2016.1155983">documented in recent research</a>, consultation is used as a tool to mobilise the public into line with governmental goals, and to give the impression that it occurred. There is a discord between <a href="http://sydneyyoursay.com.au/">lofty rhetoric</a> about communities being <a href="http://www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/consultations/search">part of a conversation</a> and the preordained ideologies and mobile policymaking structures that make changes to planning unlikely. </p>
<p>Time and again the Baird government has pursued this strategy. Two prominent examples are the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/work-on-westconnex-should-be-suspended-until-a-better-business-case-is-proved-20160228-gn5jlp.html">WestConnex</a> road project and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/council-mergers-expert-adviser-graham-sansom-slams-merger-proposals-20151218-glrg0o.html">council amalgamations</a>. </p>
<h2>‘Place-making’, soul-destroying</h2>
<p>Sydney, along with the rest of the world, is obsessed with “place-making”. The City of Sydney Council <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydneys-lockout-laws-bar-century-set-to-close-as-lockout-laws-blamed-in-part-for-downturn-in-trade-20160212-gmsias.html">may not approve</a> of the lockout laws, but it too is guided by an agenda that values select cultural elements drawn from a highly desired pool of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2005.00620.x/abstract">“creative class”</a> individuals. </p>
<p>This group’s proclivities are complicit with the desired economic growth and gentrification of urban landscapes. But this has far <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00049180600954773">more to do with</a> class than “creativity”. Pro-creativity planning ideology is invariably neither inclusive nor diverse, despite these words being <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08111146.2016.1155983">scattered throughout</a> the planning reports that espouse them.</p>
<p>The economic imperative of policymaking in Sydney’s nightlife seeks to remedy a problematic drinking culture by installing a more “civilised” one, <a href="http://usj.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/09/24/0042098013504008.abstract">ignoring</a> the structural reasons for Sydney’s problems. It erroneously assumes that gentrification will work to improve urban identities and behaviours. Rather, this shift has exacerbated the very problems it has pretended to address. </p>
<p>Anti-lockout <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/would-last-person-sydney-please-turn-lights-out-matt-barrie">rhetoric</a> railing against “nanny state” governance struck a chord with Sydneysiders and captured <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-35499522">international attention</a>. But it is inequalities unleashed by capitalist dynamics, the source of most of the city’s problems, that Sydney needs safeguarding from. In Belmore Park, where <a href="http://www.keepsydneyopen.com/">“Keep Sydney Open”</a> began its protest in February, a homeless tent community had only weeks before <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-14/fears-sydney's-homeless-being-driven-out-of-town/7163292">been pushed out</a>. </p>
<p>This move is part of a long series of <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/08/world-built-rich-201489141437354777.html">attempts to deflect</a> Sydney’s problems away from the city centre, lest discomforting encounters with the homeless upset the global city image.</p>
<h2>Beyond the lockouts</h2>
<p>Urban geographers have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/aug/04/pops-privately-owned-public-space-cities-direct-action">long been outraged</a> by the increasing privatisation of public space in our cities. </p>
<p>Now, driven by an <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/onward-christian-soldier-a-premiers-faith-20140425-379pp.html">overtly moral</a> government, it seems that even <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/lockout-laws-a-winner-for-potts-point-and-kings-cross-apartments-20160228-gn5ys8.html">private space</a> is up for grabs. While that same government continues to look after its vested interests, Sydney will become even more exclusive and inaccessible.</p>
<p>As part of a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/237327156602371/">broader movement</a> to create democratic and egalitarian urban space, pro-nightlife groups should reflect on the <a href="http://ojs.unbc.ca/index.php/acme/article/view/911/767">wider issues</a> – and communities – at stake beyond the immediate problem of lockout laws. Without the public mobilising over inequalities that are so ingrained in Sydney’s psyche, the city is unlikely to see its nightlife reflect true social inclusion and diversity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55821/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Gibson has received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peta Wolifson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Without the public mobilising over inequalities that are so ingrained in its psyche, Sydney is unlikely to see its nightlife reflect true social inclusion and diversity.Peta Wolifson, PhD Candidate in Human Geography, UNSW SydneyChris Gibson, Director, UOW Global Challenges Program & Professor of Human Geography, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/562712016-03-16T04:59:23Z2016-03-16T04:59:23ZThe 24/7 city, creativity and the lockout laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115206/original/image-20160316-25496-1qawo6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Our visions of the future embrace huge, glittering cities, but Sydney has a case of the little town blues.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A city, especially in the global age, is active, night and day. Some cities particularly – New York or Hong Kong or Tokyo – are commonly presented at night. They are magic lands lit with public television screens, flashing neon and LED text.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Blade Runner</a> uses this night-time city as a picture of the future; its buildings become nodes of constant flows of information and electricity. Unlike the pre-modern village, which structured its days on the sun, the perfected modern metropolis is a 24-hour city, which “never sleeps”.</p>
<p>When the West wanted to demonstrate the backwardness of North Korea, the Western media proliferated a satellite image of a blackness – the size of a country – just above a shimmering South Korea.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115240/original/image-20160316-8485-9s25ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115240/original/image-20160316-8485-9s25ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115240/original/image-20160316-8485-9s25ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115240/original/image-20160316-8485-9s25ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115240/original/image-20160316-8485-9s25ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115240/original/image-20160316-8485-9s25ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115240/original/image-20160316-8485-9s25ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115240/original/image-20160316-8485-9s25ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">NASA image taken by the Expedition 38 crew aboard the ISS shows night view of the Korean Peninsula.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA/Reuter</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>This vision from space was also used in Star Wars to introduce, in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120915/">The Phantom Menace</a> (Episode 1), the city planet Coruscant. It is New York scaled up, not just the administrative and cultural centre of a world but of the universe. The planet’s name, from the Latin, means glittering. </p>
<p>Coruscant is vital, powerful and beautiful (in some shots it looks like Brasilia meets Renaissance Venice). But it is also artificial and sickly: civilisation covers the whole planet, nature is a pot plant and the smog covered ground level has been uninhabitable for 1,000 years. Life is above ground in skyscrapers, recalling the class divide of another early vision of the future, contained in the film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Metropolis</a>.</p>
<p>This paradox of the city has haunted culture since its invention in the mid-19th century. As soon as the city came into being, middle class urbanites started putting pictures of praying peasants on their walls and hiring wholesome milkmaids as wet-nurses. There was something worryingly immoral and dirty about cities.</p>
<p>The first City of Light was of course Paris; it is the model that everyone followed. The nickname was earned because it was almost uniquely, at that time, lit up. Streetlights first appeared under Louis XIV but the planning vision was completed under <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Eugene-Baron-Haussmann">Baron Haussmann</a> in the 1850s. The design facilitated a complex life after dark. But it also allowed for better surveillance and scrutiny — all the better to see into the dark corners of lurking revolutionaries and criminals. </p>
<p>In their effort to picture modernity, Impressionists painted all the new daytime activities of Paris: from walking the freshly laid promenades to peering through the industrialised glass panes of shops. But they also began to paint the nightlife: the absinthe drinker; the lady of the night; the theatre; the bar girl; the singer. The Impressionists were just as interested in the magical ambience of gaslight and the limelight as the effects of sunlight on a haystack. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115212/original/image-20160316-25487-1i3av2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115212/original/image-20160316-25487-1i3av2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115212/original/image-20160316-25487-1i3av2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115212/original/image-20160316-25487-1i3av2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115212/original/image-20160316-25487-1i3av2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115212/original/image-20160316-25487-1i3av2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115212/original/image-20160316-25487-1i3av2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115212/original/image-20160316-25487-1i3av2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">At Gennelle, Absinthe Drinker by Toulouse-Lautrec.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.wikiart.org/">via Wikiart.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Sydney was preparing to debut itself to the world in the 1879 World Fair, it looked to Paris. Its Second Empire Style Town Hall, based on French models, not English ones, stood for the future, the new.</p>
<p>It is not a coincidence that Gustave Eiffel not only designed a tower but also the logo for Noilly Prat Vermouth (which is still used today). Both are in their own way symbols of the city and of modern progress. Industrialisation and its certainties allowed for the tower to stand up and for the barman to be assured that every martini he mixed would be the same, and good. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115231/original/image-20160316-8492-18ghhh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115231/original/image-20160316-8492-18ghhh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115231/original/image-20160316-8492-18ghhh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115231/original/image-20160316-8492-18ghhh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115231/original/image-20160316-8492-18ghhh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115231/original/image-20160316-8492-18ghhh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115231/original/image-20160316-8492-18ghhh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115231/original/image-20160316-8492-18ghhh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Noilly Prat Vermouth logo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A big city, as the centre of states, has traditionally accommodated all comers, almost as a defining feature. That is why, even on the extremes, we need planning laws that stipulate where our (legal) brothels go, where the erotic book shop is sited (right next to Abbey’s in Sydney), and where the bar precinct is. </p>
<p>The modern utopian dream of the model city wants to stay open, totally. In this place there are no curfews; transport runs all night; bankers working foreign stock exchanges go to dinner after trading; comedy writers drink litres of coffee and order takeout; and live music plays through the evening.</p>
<p>In 2001, Tony Blair ran for PM on a platform of keeping London open. New Labour sent an email to primarily prospective young voters that said “couldn’t give a ‘four x’ for last orders? Vote Labour on Thursday for extra time.” The new laws came into effect in 2005.</p>
<p>Last year, a report from the free market leaning Institute of Economics lauded the success of the laws. Its author, Chris Snowdon, <a href="http://www.iea.org.uk/in-the-media/press-release/longer-opening-hours-have-been-a-success">noted</a>, “The hysteria about so-called 24-hour drinking ranks as one of the great moral panics of our time, but the evidence is now clear: the doom-mongers were wrong … The biggest consequence of relaxing licensing laws has been that the public are now better able to enjoy a drink at the time and location of their choice.” </p>
<p>The report goes on to say that the diversity of offerings has gone up, including small bars and clubs. Statistically, too, assaults and other binge drinking related crime have gone down in London. This may not be a direct cause of the legislation, but at least indicated that the 24-hour city had not “made matters worse”.</p>
<p>Back in Sydney, we have a terrible case of little town blues. We are seeing a perfect case study for illustrating Michel Foucault’s political theory of “micropower”. Instead of merely laws, Foucault suggests that we are primarily controlled in modern society by smaller more socially embedded modes of control. These include our education systems, science and health experts and even the buildings we live and work in. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.justice.nsw.gov.au/Pages/media-news/media-releases/2016/mr-liquorlawreview.aspx">Ian Callinan review</a> will no doubt bring together a phalanx of experts (emergency doctors, drug experts, criminologists and police) arguing for the lockout laws on the grounds that they save lives.</p>
<p>The experts’ information is presented to us as neutral, when it cannot help but have some subjectivity and ideology (even a disciplinary bias for example) underpinning it. What we are seeing in the lockout laws is primarily a neoliberal point of view: we are kept safe to be better workers, gentrification leads to rising property prices and as Richard Cooke in The Monthly has highlighted, baby boomers (i.e. those in power) are <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/march/1456750800/richard-cooke/boomer-supremacy">not really concerned anymore with the issues of the young</a>. </p>
<p>I do not believe the instrumentalist claims of those tweeting at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/casinomike">#CasinoMike.</a> who argue the laws are part of a conspiracy to boost casino business. The lockout laws are not born from Machiavellian complexity; they are a result of merely thoughtless, harried governance.</p>
<p>These laws represent what Foucault would see as a form of control through care; the care seems well-meaning but obviously delimits freedom. By reducing the debate to the overly simplistic terms of drinking versus safety, the discussion fails to take into account the whole social infrastructure at stake. The concern for our safety does not even meet the sober professionalism of the nanny (state). Instead we have the thin-lipped nervousness of the helicopter parent.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toulouse Lautrec’s La Goulue arriving at the Moulin Rouge with two women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via Wikiart</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So intent on securing us from risk, the laws infantilises us all and stifles our activity. The argument that we are a binge-drinking culture that cannot be trusted actually ossifies the situation and never allows for the growth into a mature culture. There is a limit to risk management. </p>
<p>The blinkered debate also closes down alternative methods and solutions (like the London 24-hour model or better transport options). In a recent <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-16/fact-check-do-other-world-cities-have-lockout-laws/7225790">ABC fact check</a> this problem was exemplified. The check seemed to work hard to find cities that proved Sydney’s laws had precedent (Glasgow, Whangarei, “a city of around 50,000 people” in New Zealand). What about “world cities” such as Paris or London or Hong Kong? </p>
<p>Gilles Deleuze coined the term “society of control,” which moves Foucault’s analysis away from the policing of our health and safety towards the policing of exits and entrances, through ID and other screening, which he sees as the general new approach to law and order.</p>
<p>The lockout is the perfect example of this new order. It treats people as guilty before they can prove that they should be let in. The whole citizenry is being treated as a class of potential hooligan. That may be efficient policing but it is not good policing.</p>
<p>The modern city wants to accommodate a broad spectrum of life, from work to carnivalesque excesses. Bars, clubs and other places of mischief have an enormously important role in our societies and not just for the young. </p>
<p>They are the places of play, of celebration, of dance and imagination. The birth of the city saw a huge explosion of cultural and artistic pursuits (for all the new theatres, bars, galleries and halls) all driven by the energy and appetites of the residents. The city itself became not only a venue but a muse. </p>
<p>So to the strains of the clarinet in the opening of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynEOo28lsbc">Rhapsody in Blue</a>, day begins in the big smoke. The city is the perfect place for clubbers to share a coffee with early rising suits. They should have an equal right to see the sunrise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56271/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oliver Watts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The city, with its carnivalesque excesses, has long been a muse for artists. But Sydney’s lockout laws infantilise its citizens and stifle activity.Oliver Watts, Lecturer, Sydney College of Arts, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.