Russell Brand Slams Sydney Lockout Laws As 'Preposterous'

Hugely popular UK comedian Russell Brand has announced plans to protest Sydney's lockout laws when he arrives in the city for his national stand-up tour this October. 

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, the actor-turned political activist slammed the laws which were brought into effect last year.

"I would like to know the real reason they are doing it — to stop people assembling, to stop people communicating? Normally, the answer is, in some ways, the interests of the powerful have at some point been inhibited or ­impacted," he said.

"Anything that impairs people’s personal freedom, generally speaking, or collective freedoms or public freedoms I am broadly against."  

The Essex-born comic said he plans to ignore the laws during his two Sydney performances at the Sydney Opera House on Friday 23 October and Qantas Credit Union Arena on Saturday 24 October, though the latter is just outside the lockout law zone of the CBD.

"We will be keeping our venues open way beyond the time of any curfew, we will be serving whatever drinks people want way into the night and we will consider it our duty as citizens of a free planet to stay up way past everybody’s bedtime til we are so tired we all start crying just to defy this preposterous law," Brand said. 

Meanwhile, Brand was equally candid about his thought's on the Australian Government's current stance on marriage equality.

"I think when a country doesn’t allow same sex marriage it’s signalling to their own population and to the world that there are kind of prevailing medieval belief systems," he explained. 

"It’s sort of embarrassing."

For more info on Brand's upcoming The Trew World Tour dates in Australia, head to theGuide.