OPPONENTS of Sydney’s lockout laws “imply” that Novocastrians are “coarse” and “more inclined to violence” than their southern counterparts, according to a report commissioned by the Baird government.
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The Callinan Review of Sydney’s lockout laws, released on Tuesday, recommended the government consider pushing back lockout and last drinks by half an hour on a two-year trial.
It’s prompted calls for consideration of similar changes in Newcastle.
While the Callinan Review focused on Sydney, it included a chapter on Newcastle in which former High Court Judge Ian Callinan recounted a tour of the city’s nightspots with pro-lockout campaigner Tony Brown.
Mr Brown told him the city’s live-music scene had undergone a “renaissance” since the lockouts were introduced.
However it’s Mr Callinan’s comments on the views of Sydney’s anti-lockout campaigners that has pricked ears up in Newcastle.
In the report he writes that opponents of the lockouts “say, among other things, that Newcastle is a much smaller city and does not compare in other respects with Sydney”.
“Some opponents even imply that its people and those residing within reach of it are in some way coarser and more inclined to violence than those who frequent the Sydney CBD and Kings Cross,” he writes.
“There is no evidence to support such an implication. On any view it is relevant to examine the Newcastle experience.”
But Tyson Koh from the Keep Sydney Open campaign said he didn’t think Novocastrians were “coarse and rowdy”.
“It’s funny though, we now have lockouts in Queensland, parts of Sydney, and Newcastle, while in Melbourne they’re having a grand old time laughing at us,” he said.
“It begs the question: is there something in the water in NSW and Queensland that makes us more prone to alcohol related violence? Or, is it a complete red herring and it’s more to do with the support services that exist and the management [of venues].”
However he said he believed it was a mistake to compare Sydney to Newcastle because “of the size of the cities and because, whether you like it or not, Sydney is a more diverse place”.
Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp, who believes it could be time to revise the lockouts in Newcastle, said the comment was “outrageous”. “One has to question the value of such a comment in the report, given it was dismissed,” he said. “It is outrageous that anyone would categorise the Newcastle community in such a way. You would have to question the person’s knowledge of Newcastle and its people.”
