• The last of Sydney’s lockout laws will be lifted from next month, with Kings Cross venues permitted to welcome patrons after 1.30am.
• Bars and clubs across the city will be permitted to serve alcohol until 3.30am.
• The change comes six years after the highly controversial restrictions were introduced in response to a spate of public violence.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

The last of Sydney’s lockout laws will be lifted from next month, six years after the state government imposed strict regulations on CBD venues in response to a spate of deadly public violence.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports Kings Cross venues will be permitted to welcome customers after 1.30am, bringing the historic nightlife district into line with the rest of the city.

From March 8, bars and clubs across the city will be permitted to serve alcohol until 3.30am.

Restrictions on the service on cheap drinks and cocktails will also be removed, as will rules forbidding the service of drinks in glass after midnight.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the amended rules reflected the changing character of Kings Cross, which has “transformed considerably” since lockouts laws were brought in.

“The precinct is now well positioned to continue to evolve into a vibrant lifestyle and cultural destination with a diverse mix of small bars, live music venues and restaurants,” she said.

The NSW Government will assess the impact of those eased restrictions through 2021, as it attempts to guide the local economy out of 2020’s coronavirus shutdowns.

The lockout laws were introduced in 2014 after two young men died in separate Kings Cross one-punch attacks.

Barry O’Farrell, who was premier at the time, said the rules were designed to attack “the irresponsible acts of those who allow themselves to be intoxicated, whether by drugs or alcohol.”

Violent assaults in the Kings Cross region plummeted by 53% in the five years after lockouts came into place, according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR).

But critics of the measures pointed to separate BOCSAR figures which showed assaults rose in suburbs bordering Sydney’s CBD lockout zone.

Opponents of the lockout laws say they damaged the city’s nightlife culture by punishing law-abiding patrons.

Advocacy groups like Keep Sydney Open argued that lockout laws also ravaged the industry which serviced those revellers, with a lack of late-night trade hobbling local hotspots.

A 2019 parliamentary committee on Sydney’s night-time economy found the city was overlooking some $16 billion of industry activity by keeping lockouts in place, and called for the laws to be reformed.

Lockouts were lifted for venues in the CBD and Oxford Street in early 2020, and the NSW Government revealed plans to make Sydney a ’24 hour city’ in September last year.

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