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March 17, 2016

Beyond lockouts: Sydney needs to become a more inclusive city

The critical issues underlying the debate about Sydney’s nightlife include worsening inequality and who is getting left behind, writes Professor Chris Gibson. 

In recent weeks debate on the has escalated. Thus far it has largely been pitched as a battle between night-time businesses struggling with lockout and last-drinks laws, and a 鈥渘anny state鈥� government.

But there is much more at stake. Our focused on Surry Hills 鈥� one of Sydney鈥檚 鈥� found that underlying the nightlife debate are the critical issues of Sydney鈥檚 worsening inequality, aspirations to govern Sydney as an enterprising 鈥済lobal鈥� city, and who gets left behind.

At stake is . Currently, it seems many are being denied this right.

Is a global city a divided city?

Much of the recent debate between the anti- and pro-lockouts camps has focused on Sydney鈥檚 . The former group claims this is as Sydney鈥檚 cultural life wanes.

For years, governments have strived for global city status through economic targets that view culture as a saleable commodity. But this underplays its intrinsic values. It ignores grassroots culture and the spaces in which developing artists network and evolve.

Sydney鈥檚 global city status its socioeconomic divide. The city faces a raft of inequality issues 鈥� from excluding lower-income residents to the obfuscation of political donations and the impacts of in poor suburbs.

An underlying geographical divide lurks in the debate over Sydney鈥檚 nightlife. This is manifest in the anti-lockout protestors鈥� claim that it is not them who should be punished for the actions of a few troublemakers. Nightlife users in Sydney of people as problematic. Consequently, the cultural changes needed to make Sydney鈥檚 nightlife safer are from those protesting the laws.

This 鈥渙thering鈥� has long been presented geographically. Troublemakers are seen to be from areas of Sydney away from its inner suburbs. Underlying this discrimination are that have seen Sydney exponentially while becoming more sociospatially divided.

Faux consultation

Critics of the lockout laws are rightfully angry at the lack of prior community consultation by the NSW government. But their frustrating experience is part of a wider trend.

As , consultation is used as a tool to mobilise the public into line with governmental goals, and to give the impression that it occurred. There is a discord between about communities being and the preordained ideologies and mobile policymaking structures that make changes to planning unlikely.

Time and again the Baird government has pursued this strategy. Two prominent examples are the road project and .

鈥楶lace-making鈥�, soul-destroying

Sydney, along with the rest of the world, is obsessed with 鈥減lace-making鈥�. The City of Sydney Council of the lockout laws, but it too is guided by an agenda that values select cultural elements drawn from a highly desired pool of individuals.

This group鈥檚 proclivities are complicit with the desired economic growth and gentrification of urban landscapes. But this has far class than 鈥渃reativity鈥�. Pro-creativity planning ideology is invariably neither inclusive nor diverse, despite these words being the planning reports that espouse them.

The economic imperative of policymaking in Sydney鈥檚 nightlife seeks to remedy a problematic drinking culture by installing a more 鈥渃ivilised鈥� one, the structural reasons for Sydney鈥檚 problems. It erroneously assumes that gentrification will work to improve urban identities and behaviours. Rather, this shift has exacerbated the very problems it has pretended to address.

Anti-lockout railing against 鈥渘anny state鈥� governance struck a chord with Sydneysiders and captured . But it is inequalities unleashed by capitalist dynamics, the source of most of the city鈥檚 problems, that Sydney needs safeguarding from. In Belmore Park, where began its protest in February, a homeless tent community had only weeks before been pushed out.

This move is part of a long series of Sydney鈥檚 problems away from the city centre, lest discomforting encounters with the homeless upset the global city image.

Beyond the lockouts

Urban geographers have by the increasing privatisation of public space in our cities.

Now, driven by an government, it seems that even is up for grabs. While that same government continues to look after its vested interests, Sydney will become even more exclusive and inaccessible.

As part of a to create democratic and egalitarian urban space, pro-nightlife groups should reflect on the 鈥� and communities 鈥� at stake beyond the immediate problem of lockout laws. Without the public mobilising over inequalities that are so ingrained in Sydney鈥檚 psyche, the city is unlikely to see its nightlife reflect true social inclusion and diversity.

By , PhD Candidate in Human Geography, and , Director, UOW Global Challenges Program & Professor of Human Geography, .

This article was originally published on . Read the .

Photo: Kings Cross is falls in the lock out zone.

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