‘Our society has a drinking problem’: One GP mourns lockout laws

Sydney’s lockout laws were officially lifted across the city this week, with the single exception of Kings Cross, where they will be reviewed by the NSW Government in 12 months.
 
The laws, which were enacted in 2014 to reduce alcohol-fuelled violence in the wake of a fatal one-punch assault in Kings Cross, sparked protests and accusations they were devastating Sydney’s night life and music scene. This view seemed further supported by a NSW Parliamentary Committee estimating the laws were costing Sydney’s night-time economy $16 billion a year.
 
Many Sydneysiders, such as Universal Hotels Group general manager Richie Haines, will be celebrating the repeal, which meant that on Tuesday night, Sydneysiders could enter venues in the central city after 1.30 am and order drinks until 3.30 am for the first time in five years.
 
‘Sydney’s narrative can go from being locked and closed for business ... to a city where an arts and entertainment scene can once again flourish and where people can enjoy themselves responsibly,’ Mr Haines told the Sydney Morning Herald.
 
But not everyone will be as pleased with the repeal of the laws, which have led to a 52.8% decrease in assaults.
 
One of those who is not happy to see the lockout laws go is Dr Chris Davis, a Sydney-based GP with a special interest in treating alcohol addiction.
 
‘I deal at the frontlines [of the problem], so every day I’m seeing families and patients affected by the damage that alcohol can do,’ Dr Davis told newsGP. ‘And I think anything which helps us talk about the damages that alcohol is doing and helps us question our drinking is really positive.
 
‘Our society has a drinking problem and it has to accept that, as a society, we need to drink less.’
 
Dr Davis understands that many perceived the lockout laws as a ‘nanny state’ type of initiative, but he believes they were actually a progressive public health measure.
 
‘Lockout laws have been a recommendation from Australian public health doctors since the 1970s,’ he said.
 
‘Drinking within certain hours and restricting access, using minimum unit pricing, all these things have been proven to work to reduce the dangers and the harms of alcohol.’
 
Dr Davis likens alcohol-related public health measures to those used against tobacco.
 
‘There is no health benefit to drinking. Alcohol is an addictive drug, it’s a cancer-causing, poisonous drug, effectively, very much in the same way that cigarettes are,’ he said.
 
‘People have always made the argument about passive smoking, but people are harmed by other people’s drunkenness all the time – car accidents, alcohol-related violence, verbal abuse, pollution on the streets, noise pollution.’
 
For Dr Davis, the repeal of the lockout laws is on a par with repealing the anti-smoking measures to which our society has become accustomed over time.
 
‘Initially, people were a bit resistant to banning smoking inside pubs and inside restaurants and on public transport,’ he said.
 
‘As we progress as a society, we now look back to those days when people were smoking on trains and buses as – I mean, that would be abhorrent to general society now.
 
‘For me, [repealing the lockout laws] is like re-introducing cigarette smoking in pubs. And I know that isn’t going to make me popular with my drinking friends, but with my doctor’s head on that’s absolutely how I see it.’
 
Dr Davis believes Australians need to investigate their relationship with alcohol, and question why it is perceived as so necessary to having a good time.
 
‘I think we should all be curious about why we feel we need to drink in the early hours of the morning,’ he said. ‘We need to be sober-curious and start really questioning our habits.
 
‘Is that extra hour of drinking adding to our quality of life as a society, or is it detracting?’
 
Log in below to join the conversation.
 

Addiction medicine Alcohol Lockout laws NSW Public health