Sydney’s Party Poopers Pull Out All the Stops

Right out on Bourke Street, locals are grooving on the granite footpath as they devour delicious Asian finger food. For several years, Miss Chu “the queen of rice paper” has been pumping out savoury steamed dumplings and crisp Vietnamese rice paper rolls for a song (several pieces cost less than $6.50).  The vibe is urban and cool. On busy nights, the place is packed: young patrons grab stools and funky folding chairs and vie for space. In the background low ambient dance music buzzes beneath the hum of cars on William Street. The narrow commercial space has been decorated to look like a street cart. From her little hole in the wall location Nahji Chu runs a bustling catering business, which only uses organic and fair trade ingredients. She has even introduced a bicycle delivery service for locals to take advantage of her location on the City’s brand-new multi million dollar bike lane. With plans to open another location at the Opera House, this is precisely the kind of business you would expect Sydney to embrace with gusto, which is no doubt why the City gave Miss Chu a Business Award last year.

So go figure. Last month Council rangers issued Miss Chu with two infringement notices costing in excess of $3,000 — one for allowing more people than Council approved to squeeze onto the footpath. A second penalty notice was issued for playing ambient dance music after a single resident complained. Now you know how Sydney has earned its reputation for “fine” dining. Well paid government bureaucrats are busy throwing the book at Miss Chu, who has turned a once dark and dangerous street corner into a hub of urban activity. Locals, trannies and sex workers who have walked along Bourke Street and back up St Peter’s Lane for years love the vibe, which has increased safety in the historic red light district.

A few blocks south on Oxford Street, gay bars, live music venues and dance clubs continue to operate in what is still technically Sydney’s twenty four hour “entertainment precinct,” despite ongoing government efforts to send everyone home to bed early. Every Friday and Saturday night up to 10,000 people pour into the district creating one of the world’s best urban party precincts with a vibrant night time economy that employs a number of young local residents as staff. Sydney’s Lord Mayor and Local Member, Clover Moore has fought to roll back Sydney’s late night hours on behalf of a vocal minority of cranky baby boomers who are too pooped to party. In 2009 the State government trialled 2 am lockouts at thirteen venues in the City of Sydney; one third of those City establishments were gay bars on Oxford Street. Following public protests, lock outs were suspended earlier this year. But Town Hall is seeking new ways to curtail Sydney’s 24 hour entertainment precinct. Under proposed, new planning controls the City will only grant any drinking establishment that lodges a development application permission to operate on a permanent “trial basis”, giving the City the right to revoke a venue’s late night trading license at any time. Venue owners are fighting back. They recently put up a website www.nannastate.com.au which states, “This discriminates against the young, those that like to stay out late, to dance, to have fun, to see live acts and DJs, and so on.”

This is how Sydney is losing its groove: gay porn shops, which are an integral part of any world-class queer urban precinct, alongside bars and dance venues, are under threat of closure on Oxford Street. Despite the fact that many Sydneysiders easily down load porn on their personal computers, selling x-rated movies over the counter is still illegal in NSW. Earlier this year, the City Hub reported a gay porn shop owner on Oxford Street was jailed for three months after he was unable to pay the penalties imposed on him once police seized 4,000 x-rated movies from his shop. Last month the State Parliament passed even harsher laws that would send even more porn purveyors to prison. Under the legislation, police are now able to charge owners with the cost of reviewing the classification of their products, if they are found guilty of selling prohibited material. Under these rules, the jailed Darlinghurst porn shop owner would have been hit with an additional $36,000 in penalties. Two weeks ago, the President of the Upper House, Amanda Fazio, a member of Labor’s right wing faction, took the unprecedented step of crossing the floor to vote with the Greens to oppose the bill. Fazio was subsequently suspended from the party, since members of the ALP are strictly forbidden to vote against party lines, unless they are allowed a conscience vote. In September, when the bill was passed by the Lower House, Sydney MP Clover Moore, who is always free to vote her conscience did not speak against the bill, doing little to ensure that more gay porn operators are not imprisoned.