Biting the Bullet !

There was a sense of inevitability about the new drinking  laws that Barry O'Farrell will impose on Sydney.   Drunken violence has cascaded out of control and the 1-30 am " Lockout " and 3 am " Last drinks " laws that were trialled in Newcastle successfully tamed that city.   These restrictions are simply " logic " - and will have the support of the majority of people.

All forms of violence will now attract mandatory prison terms and that seems to be a desperate attempt to curb the spate of " Coward punches " that have become a new form of drunken thuggery in recent times. Most of the existing laws have had their maximum sentences increased and there is now a minimum eight years for assaults that result in death - where drugs or alcohol were involved.

A range of 2, 3 and 4 year minimum terms apply for other forms of assault, including " Reckless bodily harm ",  Affray,  " Reckless wounding " - and assaults on police.  The power of the magistrates has been reduced and with that the ability to intervene where " exceptional circumstances " apply.    The public has long complained that the judiciary were " soft " on crime.   Now the pendelum has swung the other way and mandatory sentencing applies.

The Newcastle experiment - on which these new laws are based - proved that public drunkenness is heavily reduced when the opportunities to drink are curtailed.  That would be a welcome result in Sydney and the government is trying to get people to safely go home by increasing transport services from night spot areas and an increased police presence.

There seems no doubt that more people will serve a gaol term as a result of these laws and that will have a severe social impact.   A moment of drunken stupidity that brings a year or so in a prison will end some careers and probably many marriages.    It is even likely that the state will need to build a new prison to accommodate these increased numbers.

The mystery remains as to why some people go out for a night on the grog and feel the need to assault complete strangers without provocation.  In many instances, not as a single incident, but as an attack on several people picked at random.   That has been the cause of several deaths - and the main reason that this legislation has been put in place to try and curb violence.

Hopefully, we will see a big reduction in the carnage television reporters serve up to us every night of the weekend and fewer people will be turning up in hospital emergency rooms.  These new laws will need fine tuning - because it is inevitable that there will be unintended consequences.

At last we are taking the first step in a new direction !