Lockout laws. Compulsory IDs for cyclists. Next they'll be handing out floaties at Bondi beach. https://t.co/NWYM6HmwAD— Daniel Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) 1 March 2016
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews recently tweeted, “Lockout laws. Compulsory IDs for
cyclists. Next they'll be handing out floaties at Bondi beach.”
So will Melbourne set up camps to accept a flow of cyclists,
musicians, hospitality workers and, essentially, anyone from Sydney who thinks
there's more to life than driving an SUV from your suburban home to your 9-5
job, getting an early alcohol-free night, and then going a little crazy at the
casino on the weekend? This appears to be the Sydney that Casino-Mike Baird
wants to make, and he's succeeding.
First they brought in the restrictive anti-entertainment
laws. Want to go to a private party? Tough, bottlo closed at 10pm. Want to go
out to dinner after a show? Tough, bottlo closed at 10pm. I'll just get a kebab
on King Street then? Nope, can't even do that. Want to see a band? Nope, all
the venues have been shut down because of restrictive licensing laws. Want to
ride your bike safely through the city? Get ready for ridiculous anti-cycling
fines, or risk your life in streets where Casino-Mike has ripped up the bike
lanes. Anyone who has ridden a bike in Sydney knows that, due to the dire lake
of cycling infrastructure, one has to pop onto the footpath in various places
for fear of being an easy target for the killer machines that have hijacked our
highways. But do that now and you could get a fine equivalent to many people’s
weekly pay-cheque! And riding on roads of the inner-west will only get more
precarious if the travesty that is WestConnex waddles in. Essentially, safe cycling
is now illegal in Sydney. Likewise wanting a bottle of wine with your dinner
after 10pm. Likewise taking a drink to a private party. Likewise wanting to
run, or work in, a live music venue.
Casino-Mike Baird is killing Sydney, and for people like me
Melbourne begins to look like the only safe haven. Writer-performer, and former
Simon Townsend's Wonderworld reporter, Wednesday Kennedy used the term
'Cultural Refugee' to describe why she felt the need to leave Australia during John
Howard’s Prime Ministerial reign. The idea that one's cultural values were not
only disrespected, but actually trampled upon, to the point where one's home
becomes unliveable. I don't want to belittle those who are refugees in fear of
their lives. I am not in that category - I can stay alive in Sydney, as long as
I don't try and express or experience my culture. Nonetheless I'm beginning to
feel like a cultural refugee. I can't ride my bike, I can't see a band, I can't
even buy a bottle of plonk FFS! And of course, as someone who has often
supplemented my meagre artistic and writing income by climbing over to the
business side of the bar on occasion, my chances of work diminish with every venue
that shuts down, seemingly daily.
What can I do? Will the Victorian government welcome us as we
stream across the Albury-Wodonga border towards the promise of cultural freedom
in Melbourne? Premier Andrews seems to understand our fears. Or do we just need
to fly out of Oz altogether?
I don't want to leave Sydney - I have a life here, and furthermore
a really good, rare deal on my flat, but when the sirens begin to wail, and you
know the Casino barons’ brown-shirts are on the streets baying for miscreants like
you, and you're stuck, unable to move for fear of fines or just having every
option shut down in front of you, what can you do?
