Mike Baird Set To Cut Lockouts By 30 Min & Keep Sydney Open Is Not Happy

Just days after an estimated 10,000 people stormed the streets of Sydney to again protest the lockout laws, NSW Premier Mike Baird is reportedly set to make some changes to the laws, including pushing the lockouts back to 2am, but anti-lockout activist group Keep Sydney Open are not happy about the news at all. 

As The Daily Telegraph reports, Baird is expected to recommend cabinet take on the recommendations from former High Court Judge Ian Callinan's review last month and not only push the lockouts in Sydney's CBD and Kings Cross back by half an hour, but also allow live music venues (including DJs and bands) to stay open later and bottle shops to operate until midnight. 

"Pushing back the lockouts by half an hour will do little to help small businesses, the music scene or reinvigorate our dying inner-city precincts," Keep Sydney Open's Tyson Koh said in a statement this morning. 

"Hardly a backflip, it's a sidestep. It's an unacceptable result that shows how oblivious the Premier is to how cities and culture operate. The night-time economy comprises more jobs and more revenue than greyhound racing, yet the concessions given there outweigh the ones given to lockouts.

"If the reports are true, then the Premier has just made his time in office much more difficult because our followers are growing and Keep Sydney Open isn't going anywhere anytime soon."

While it appears changes to the lockouts will be reviewed towards the end of the year, the bottle shop changes could reportedly be decided as soon as tomorrow.

Speaking on the subject on Nova 969's Fitzy & Wippa breakfast show this morning, Baird said, "There has been a massive reduction is violence, there are also concerns in terms of businesses, there are concerns in terms of what it has done to the live music industry".