Should we set a public alcohol limit?
An idea to enable a vibrant and safe night culture in Sydney
Culture defines a city. A vibrant culture creates a thriving city and positively affects it at every level: from the spring in peoples' step to the money coursing through its veins.
Sydney could be one of the most vibrant and interesting cities in the world. We are blessed with climate, geography and architecture. We have talent abound. Unfortunately, however, our culture is in sharp decline. Sydney’s lockout laws, while undoubtedly reducing alcohol-related crime, are destroying our nightlife — effectively turning off the music and sending people home. This is not how a global city should roll.
Rather than shutting down the city to create a safe zone, a better solution would be to target the real issue: problem drinkers. One way of achieving this might be to set a public alcohol limit.
Following is the outline of an idea for discussion.
Why Sydney absolutely needs a vibrant nightlife
Putting aside the obvious benefits to the local economy, the cultural economy, tourism and just the sheer enjoyment of the city, Sydney needs to compete on a global scale if it wants to be a player in the rapidly emerging future world order. The key to this future is innovation. Stimulating innovation is arguably the most important task of a city today. Innovation drives growth. Innovation creates jobs. Innovation orientates a city to the future. We know this.
But do we realise that one of best ways to increase innovation is to foster a vibrant culture? As Richard Florida argues, “if the best and the brightest can go anywhere, why wouldn’t they go to a place they will enjoy living in?”
“cities that create an environment and buzz that attract and retain entrepreneurs, while also hanging onto their home-grown talent, will be best positioned for future success” — A.T. Kearney Global Cities 2015
Are we doing everything we can to make Sydney one of the most interesting and vibrant Global Cities on earth? Are we making it as appealing as New York or Tokyo or Paris or Berlin? I think not.
In his passionate essay, Would The Last Person in Sydney Please Turn the Lights Out?, Matt Barrie, CEO of Freelancer, argued that while cities like London and Amsterdam are appointing Night Mayors to vitalise and grow their night-time economies, Sydney is doing the exact opposite: using lockout laws to shut down venues and extinguish nightlife.
“The total and utter destruction of Sydney’s nightlife is almost complete” — Matt Barrie
Matt warns us that we are already driving talented people away; quoting a leading recruiter: “nobody from Silicon Valley wants to come to Australia for any role. We used to think maybe someone would move for a lifestyle thing, but they don’t want to do that anymore”.
This is a serious concern.
On the other hand, we need a safe city. It is completely understandable that the Premier wants to defend policies that demonstrate a marked reduction in violence. Kings Cross Police data indicated a dramatic fall in crime following the introduction of last drinks and lockout laws:
- sexual assaults down by 20.8%
- assaults causing grievous bodily harm down by 43%
- assaults causing actual bodily harm down by 50.3%
- robberies down by 57.1%
- car theft down by 44.6%, and
- stealing from motor vehicles down by 47.5%
St Vincent’s Hospital (the hospital closest to Kings Cross) also reported “striking and immediate” declines in serious injuries.
While the accuracy of some of the statistics is being criticised, there is little doubt that alcohol-related violence is a problem. It is also obvious that problems will be exacerbated in places where people gather to get drunk. The heat map below shows the pattern of assaults shifting from areas under lock-out into alcohol-permitted areas, notably Pyrmont where the casino is.
The fact is that many Australians have a serious drinking problem (20% of Australians consume 74.2% of all alcohol), and many of those have a binge drinking problem. It is elements* of this cohort that cause the majority of issues.
The case for a public alcohol limit
Rather than lock down the entire city to protect the public from violent drunks, wouldn’t it be more sensible to find a solution that targets the trouble-makers while leaving sensible drinkers alone to enjoy their night?
We already have a precedent: drink driving. We don’t allow drunk people to endanger others by getting behind the wheel of a car, so perhaps we should extend the concept to prevent people walking the streets shitfaced?
Here is an idea for discussion (and I mean discussion, I’m not 100% on it myself):
- Set a maximum blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for being in public. Make the limit quite high so that people can go out and get merry, perhaps between 0.125 (Significant impairment of motor coordination and loss of good judgment. Speech may be slurred; balance, vision, reaction time and hearing will be impaired. Euphoria) and 0.15 (Gross motor impairment and lack of physical control. Blurred vision and major loss of balance. Euphoria is reduced and dysphoria (anxiety, restlessness) is beginning to appear. Judgment and perception are severely impaired).
- Implement Arbitrary Breath Tests, where police officers can stop and test people they believe might be over the limit. Publicans could also call the police to test troublesome customers.
- Bus drunks off to sleep-it-off dorms and issue a fine commensurate with costs. Only low security, backpacker type dorms are needed. Backpacker bed rates are around $50 to $80 per night, so fines might start around there. Offenders are held until they are under the limit and then released without criminal charges.
- Provide repeat offenders mandatory alcohol counselling, and/or put them into a zero-tolerance category.
- Grant 24-hour bar and club licences to allow to people leave in a steady, manageable stream.
By targeting troublesome drinkers, we address the problem head-on. The message is clear: go out and have a great time but don’t get paralytic. By setting a maximum BAC limit, police would have a clear line by which to enforce policy: “you’re over the limit mate, on the bus with you”. It also removes the pressure from security guards, public transport officials and bar staff to deal with unruly customers; rather than engaging with a drunk, they simply threaten to call the police.
Of course, implementing such an idea is non-trivial. Dorms will need to be set up and extra police employed. The backlash will also be massive: people will scream that it is their right to get wasted and that this is another example of the ‘police state’, and the alcohol industry will be apoplectic.
However, if we want to be a competitive global city, we need to find a solution to alcohol-related violence that does not strangle our nightlife. The cultural and economic risks are too high for us to fail. We talk about an ideas boom, well here is a great place to start. I’ve presented one idea. We need more.
We need an intelligent debate and we need a solution.
Postscript: upon reflection, I no longer like the idea of a public alcohol limit. It erodes civil liberties too much. Rather, I would prefer to see 24 hour licensing introduced so that people can leave venues when they are ready, dispersing in an orderly manner, instead of being dumped into the streets all at once at curfew hour. A Night Mayor is a good idea and an office should be created. Finally, existing intoxicated and disorderly behaviour laws should be used to crack down on violent behaviour. Predictive Policing technologies should also be explored with a view to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of policing.
*There is an argument that it’s “the wider culture that determines the behaviour whilst drinking, not just the drinking”, and “that alcohol can, in certain cultures and situations, be a facilitator of aggression if aggression is there to begin with, both in the individual and in the cultural environment. It does not produce it where it doesn’t already exist.”
On a practical level, it would be very difficult to isolate individuals who are predisposed to violence.
John Dobbin is a digital transformation consultant based in Sydney who likes nothing better than a whiskey or two while listening to cool Jazz in an underground bar at 3 am in the morning.
