Yesterday, NSW Premier Mike Baird caused a stir when he basically dismissed any opposition to the Sydney lockout laws on his Facebook and now Alison Wonderland has hit back on Facebook accusing him of “ignoring us.”
Wonderland is now one of this country’s biggest electronic music exports but she got her start hitting the decks in Kings Cross clubs and is understandably upset about watching Sydney become a ghost town.
“You obviously don’t listen to anyone younger than you, so perhaps you’ll listen to someone who travels abroad more than you,” she wrote, tagging Baird in the post.
“Our beloved Sydney’s reputation has taken a fucking battering & words can’t explain how embarrassed I am that my home, the most beautiful and once most vibrant city in the world has become a laughing stock internationally.”
The producer who released her debut album Run last year is currently touring around the US and has been speaking to people who continue to ask her whether it’s true that Sydney has become “a nanny state.”
“I miss the feeling of being able to discover music whilst exploring Sydney,” she further wrote.
She ended her message with a few strong, poignant words for the Premier writing, “Go on… keep arrogantly ignoring us. It seems to have worked well for your predecessors.”
Baird promised in his 400 word rant yesterday that over the coming months a review into the laws will be conducted but he’s also noted that it’s going to take a lot for him to change his mind.
The post was obviously met with thousands of comments some even accusing the Premier of deleting some of the comments. One Facebook user commented that there was 14,000 comments at midnight last night, however, that had number had dropped to 10,000 comments 9 hours later. Those claims have been supported by a number of others who also noticed the comment count dropping.
Baird’s social media manager has, however, denied the claims telling news.com.au, “It is absolutely not true we are deleting posts.”
“Not one single post… We would normally delete abusive or threatening posts but we have let this thread run totally free.”
Apparently it’s because of a “Facebook discrepancy” where different devices show different comment counts. “Some ‘counts’ of comments include only the original comment while on other platforms (iPad for example) it seems to also count replies to comments in the tally. When news orgs embed the post it shows a higher tally too,” they said.
It’s been almost two years since the laws, which enforce a 1.30am lockout and a 3am halt to drinks service, were introduced and there has been widespread disapproval as many bars and clubs have been forced to close. Public talk about the laws and their damaging affect on businesses has been reignited over the past few weeks as the freeze on reviewing the lockout laws has been lifted after two years.
Just last week a Sydney business man made headlines after he posted an epic essay on LinkedIn showing just how damaging the laws have been. He also accompanied it with pictures of King Cross as the ghost town it has become.
The support is already flooding in for Wonderland’s post with Nina Las Vegas, yet another DJ who got her start in Sydney, “IT’s FUCKED.” She also took to Twitter noting that Wonderland, What So Not, Anna Lunoe and Flight Facilities would not exist if it weren’t for the late night club scene.
Dear Mike Baird, You obviously don’t listen to anyone younger than you, so perhaps you’ll listen to someone who... Posted by Alison Wonderland on Tuesday, 9 February 2016
