Flight Facilities, The Preatures And A Coward Punch Victim Write Powerful Anti-Lockout Statements Aimed At Mike Baird

Yesterday Alison Wonderland took her well-penned thoughts about Sydney’s lockout laws to social media, calling out NSW Premier Mike Baird for “ignoring us” and now she’s been joined by another two Sydney acts, Flight Facilities and The Preatures.

Jimmy and Hugo from Flight Facilities both kickstarted their careers in clubs around King Cross and told inthemix that pretty much every club the was of significance to them growing up has been shut down since the laws were introduced.

Hugo’s, Soho and Backroom are all clubs named by the duo where they played regularly or hung out in their off time. “Had these laws been in effect 10 years earlier, our music may never have existed,” they wrote.

“We’re proud to be an Australian export on the international scene. But what positive words do we have to say about Sydney when we’re playing shows at 2am in Lisbon, Portugal, before watching the sunrise from a different club across town?”

Echoing the same sentiments as Wonderland they further stated that no one in the government seems to be willing to talk about the issue. They then called it “the most blatant grab for cash we’ve ever seen,” given that Star City Casino, a good source of revenue for the government, is not included in the lockout zone.

“Where’s the voice for the entertainment industry, and the youth? It’s in the hands of a former investment banker who is ‘serving Jesus as the Treasurer of the state’,” they concluded with.

Isabella Manfredi of The Preatures took a different approach to her stance on the lockouts, instead recounting a recent night where she couldn’t find anywhere to sit out and have a drink without ordering food. At 10.45pm. On a Saturday night.

“Where Mike Baird talks about anecdotal evidence of safer streets and a more vibrant city, I see eerily empty streets and slim choices,” she said, continuing that it worries her that politicians can treat “the voices of young people, venue owners and community members with moral aloofness.”

In what is becoming a common thread in any anti-lockout proclamation, Manfredi questioned why, “major Hotels and venues overseen by the AHA and commercial precincts like The Star, Darling Harbour and Barangaroo are exempted from these laws.”

The lockout laws were originally introduced to combat the violence within Sydney nightlife particularly as a response to a number of fatal coward punches. But victim of the coward punch, Max Hardwick-Morris, who claims he was hit on Australia Day, wrote a letter to Mike Baird from hospital while waiting for a follow-up appointment after his attack, condemning the laws.

Hardwick-Morris says he spent five days in hospital, “with concussion and a broken fibula that required surgery to implant a plate and 6 screws up the side of my leg,” and hopes that his voice can be heard and not used as fuel to promote the lockout laws, like what happened with, “the two unfortunate coward punches that resulted in deaths.”

The man criticised Baird’s Facebook post this week which angered many by saying that Sydney was as vibrant as ever. “You mustn’t have left your house past sunset in months within the confines of the CBD and surrounding areas as if you had you’d see it’s an absolute ghost town,” he wrote.

“It’s become an international joke.”

Like so many others he encouraged Baird to actually read what is being said about the laws and not, “reject it before you read it like you already seem to be doing.”

The lockout laws are currently being reviewed and you can email the Premier with your views here. Baird has stated, however, that, “it is going to take a lot for me to change my mind.”

You can read the full statements below.