[Disclaimer: this article’s a long-en, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, and this shit’s important]

It didn’t take long for Sydney to take a notable reactionary stance against the brazenly ill-conceived lock-out laws that came into effect last year. In a decisive attempt to combat a narrow concern of our nightlife, Sydney was slapped with the controversial laws championed by Mr. O’Farrell in harmony with the voices of generation Baby-Boomer. It’s hard to envisage that much consultation with those directly involved in the issue was taken under advisement when drafting up the legislation, whereby instead of taking calculative and effective action targeted to combat the specific social concerns and threats, the Government in essence demonised youth nightlife culture with its imposed blanket restrictions. 

As such, we were not surprised to see yesterdays story in the Sydney Morning Herald highlighting the sudden boom in underground warehouse party culture being attributed to the trickle-down affect of the lock-out laws. The unequivocal correlation between the laws and the boom highlights the obvious problems that arise when you have out of touch politicians acting hastily to appease their audience. Instead of people being drunk in licensed venues, you have people going off drunk/munted ten-fold in spaces where safety precautions are mere myth. But such is human nature, we want to have fun, and no amount of regulation will deter us. 

It’s not a matter of feeling sympathetic for club owners such as Murat Kilic (of Spice Cellar), whom have notably suffered at the hands of this legislation, for all of the effected establishments are in the same boat, supposedly. The significant inconsistency in regard to lock-out is The Star casino, who very conveniently managed to bypass Mr. O’Farrell’s laws (most likely due to their stellar reputation as an innocently innocuous establishment, and no other dubious reasons of course). This makes one question the validity of lock-out; yes, it may have initially been conceived with good intentions, but how far were we sold down the river by those in power to those with influence under the guise of our own ‘protection’?

The reason for drudging up old demons comes in light of news that the Legislative Assembly is conducting an inquiry to assess how effective the Governments lock-out laws have been in reducing alcohol and drug related violence. This doesn’t mean that anything is going to happen in the immediate future, however down the track the possibility of change has betting potential. So why is this important to you now? Because the Committee on Law and Safety is taking public submissions which will be considered in their assessment of the laws. So this is your chance to have your voice heard and help bring about change in a way that packs infinitely more influence than a million retweeted rants in the social blogosphere.

So here’s Stoney’s step-by-step guide to placing your submission:

NOTE: SUBMISSIONS CLOSE THIS FRIDAY 15TH AUGUST!!!!!

1. Have a browse of Parliament’s  ‘How-to: Preparing Submissions’ document here. 
2. Click here and under the ‘Submissions’ heading, click the “To Lodge a Submission Online”.
3. Write/send your submission – They may take any form, and can contain any facts, opinions, arguments, and/or recommendations; basically whatever you feel about this issue, write it down, and they’ll read it!

It’s seriously as easy as 1, 2, 3, and will take 5 minutes. You don’t have to be brilliant, you just have to be yourself and say what you feel. So if you feel that the lock-out laws are an issue worthy of change, now’s your chance to be a part of it!