Tag Archives
Lockouts: any venue can be exempt
Any CBD venue could be exempted from Barry O’Farrell’s new lockout laws providing it pays a “reasonable fee”, it can be revealed. The legislation allows the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing’s Director General to issue an exemption as long as it “is unlikely to result in an increase in the level of alcohol-related violence […]
Two Weeks’ Notice: lockouts rushed in
By Michael Koziol and Triana O'Keefe Grassroots forces mobilising to fight the state government’s liquor laws have been dealt a hammer blow, with Premier Barry O’Farrell yesterday announcing the lockouts will commence on February 24. It was originally rumoured that venues would be given until April to be prepare for the new regime. But Mr […]
Development lobby chides opposition over planning
The developer lobby group Urban Taskforce has urged opposition parties to back the state government’s original planning bill, which is currently stalled in the Legislative Council while the government considers amendments made late last year. In a letter to upper house leaders of Labor, the Greens and the Shooters and Fishers Party, chief executive Chris […]
It’s hard yakka working in The Cross
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell’s announcement of lockouts and a freeze on new liquor licences has prompted both applause and condemnation from the wide variety of stakeholders involved in this heated debate. City News spoke with a number industry staff who work within the restricted zone and asked whether these laws would make a difference. “It […]
One-punch laws hit political resistance
The political fate of Barry O’Farrell’s legislation to curb alcohol-fuelled violence is still unknown, with opposition to certain aspects of the package surfacing. There is tension within both the major parties about mandatory minimum sentencing, a key part of the reforms announced by Mr O’Farrell last week. Under the proposed legislation, mandatory jail terms would […]
Local pollies cautious on liquor reform
Independent MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich has expressed concern about the state government’s liquor reforms. Premier Barry O’Farrell announced on Tuesday that venues in the CBD will be subject to a 1.30am lockout and 3am “last drinks” policy. “While there are some valuable reforms in the Premier’s announcement...I am concerned some changes are reactive and […]
Residents ship out of White Bay
A handful of Balmain residents intend to vacate their properties for up to six weeks to avoid the peak season at the White Bay cruise ship terminal. Since the facility’s inception in April last year, a small group of residents have lodged recurrent complaints with Sydney Ports about air and noise pollution at the site. […]
Calls to turbo-charge local government reform
Proposed “Joint Organisations” of councils should be expanded and made mandatory, the chief executive of Urban Taskforce NSW, Chris Johnson, has said. Revitalising Local Government, an independent report to the state government made public last week, recommends Sydney’s 41 councils be reduced to 18, primarily through amalgamating small inner-city councils. The report suggests clustering Leichhardt […]
Law in limbo, debate over planning continues
The O’Farrell government’s new state planning laws, which will continue to be debated when parliament returns at the end of February, will not include an environmental protection framework, which environmentalists say could significantly impact on threatened species and vulnerable ecosystems. The Australian National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development defines ESD as “using, conserving and enhancing […]
Miracles of nature, rays of hope
Early Sunday morning, I was lurking in the artificial Casuarina forest above the big earth tank in Sydney Park, not far from the kiosk, peering through my binoculars at the construction site that will shortly be – Clover Moore tells me – Australia’s biggest urban stormwater recycling project, when somebody addressed me in a comic […]
