SYDNEY, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Australian city of Sydney spent it's first night free of controversial lockout laws restricting the sale of alcohol and entry to licensed venues on Tuesday.
While it will take some time to repair the city's damaged nightlife, crowds in a number of venues celebrated the end of what they consider to be a heavy handed government response and a stain on Sydney's international reputation.
For the first time in five years, patrons could enter a pub or club in Sydney's central business district (CBD) after 1:30 a.m. and purchase a shot after midnight.
Introduced in 2014, the lockout laws were a response to high rates of alcohol fuelled violence, including two widely publicized deaths.
On New Year's Eve 2013, teenager Daniel Christie died after being hit once and fracturing his skull, near to where another teenager, Thomas Kelly died in a one punch attack in 2012.
The periphery city-suburb of Kings Cross, where those attacks occurred, will retain the laws for at least another 12 months at which point they will be reviewed.
Some Sydney residents have blamed the laws for stifling the city's nightlife and making it an uninviting destination for international visitors.
A spokesperson for the City of Sydney told Xinhua that repealing the laws would "breathe oxygen into Sydney's cultural life and night-time economy."
"We know the lockout laws were an overreaction when what we needed was 24-hour public transport and a stronger liquor licensing system to support well-run venues, penalize rogue ones, and spread venues out across the city," they said.
However, the state government party responsible for introducing the laws maintains they were necessary in curbing alcohol fuelled violence at the time.
A report by the New South Wales (NSW) Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOSCAR), released in August 2019 showed that assaults had decreased by 53 percent in the Kings Cross precinct and 4 percent in the broader CBD area.
Meanwhile, assaults in suburbs surrounding the lockout zone increased by 18 percent, and assaults in a number of popular alternative nightlife areas accessible from the city, rose by 30 percent.
However, overall, a net reduction in the number of assaults was estimated for the five year period during which the lockout laws were in place.
"BOCSAR estimates the reforms delivered an overall reduction in non-domestic assaults over five years, with an estimated net benefit of 395 fewer non-domestic assault incidents," the report said.
