A city that stays open after nine.
The state spends about $15.6 million a year running its night-time economy office, and on a Monday only a third of the City of Sydney's night-time businesses are open after 9pm.
I'm 30. I turned 18 in May 2014, three months after the lockout laws came in. Every year, once Mardi Gras is over, I notice fewer venues left on Oxford Street, and nights out ending earlier and earlier.
What's going on
Sydney has taken four hits since 2014: the lockout laws, four years of light rail construction, the COVID lockdowns and the cost of living. The lockouts and the light rail were NSW Government choices, and it never helped the people who paid for them. Now late shifts cost more, people lost the habit, and opening later means council paperwork.
By the numbers
Who pays
The nurse coming off a late shift with nothing open but a servo.
The hospitality worker whose own industry shuts before they finish work.
Young people, whose night out ends before it starts.
The venue owner whose last two hours cost more in wages than they bring in.
What I'll do
- 01
Cover the cost of late shifts.
Staying open late costs more in wages, and for a small venue that can be the difference between opening and not. I'll help venues cover the extra cost of staff after 9pm, up to $30,000 a year. Workers' pay stays exactly the same.
- 02
Give you a reason to go out.
Every adult in NSW gets one $25 voucher a year to spend after 9pm, in winter, when fewer people go out. It only works at venues that stay open late.
- 03
Let your high street open later.
Right now a council has to draft a planning proposal, commission sound testing, consult and rewrite its local plan before a strip can trade later. Under my plan, busy commercial streets qualify automatically. Councils can still say no, and they still set the noise rules.
- 04
Check it's working.
An outside evaluation after two years, with the voucher and the late-shift payment adjusted on what it finds.
What it costs
Under $200 million a year, in a sector worth $110 billion to NSW. About $73 million covers late shifts and the rest pays for vouchers. Some of that money will go to venues that already open late. That's the price of keeping it simple.
Proof it works
Enmore Road in Sydney's inner west started trading later as a special entertainment precinct on trial in 2022. It was made permanent in 2024. An Inner West Council survey found 83 per cent of locals supported it.
What changes for you
More places open when you finish work. More shifts for people who work nights. A $25 voucher towards a night out each winter. And your strip staying open won't depend on your council having staff and money for paperwork.