“The way forward is the way we’ve come” – how Sydney got its 24-hour mojo back

No one could have foreseen it, but it’s increasingly clear the many thousands of Sydneysiders who marched in the streets for an end to the lockout laws kicked off a policy reform process that could ultimately reshape the way we think about and plan for time in our city. 

As a teenager putting on parties in Kings Cross and the city before the lockouts, I couldn’t have imagined chairing a conversation on this topic with the first ever 24 Hour Economy Commissioner and experts from the World Economic Forum and local governments, but so much has changed.

Now working on culture policy at independent think tank Committee for Sydney, I’ve put a lot of thought into how you make change happen, and there are basically two approaches.

Option one – start in a crisis. In campaigning jargon, the opportunity in a crisis is a “crisitunity”. The need for a solution is never clearer than when you’re at rock bottom. It can trigger large-scale rapid change, but is also vulnerable to backlash. 

Option two – take on the slow work of building consensus. Commit to doing something, do it, and let everyone know you did it. Then do it again and again, incrementally making changes. It takes time, and it can be frustrating, but it’s more resilient because every cycle builds and deepens trust and confidence.

Sydney’s nightlife hit rock bottom in 2017, with the damage to our nightlife reverberating around the globe.

Inspired by the UK’s Night Time Industry Association and spurred on by Mike Rodrigues, then boss of Time Out, the Committee for Sydney’s Sydney as a 24 hour city report put forward a set of recommendations to revive the city’s nightlife – most now enacted.  This was clearly the first option: start in a crisis.

What came next is really interesting. From day one, the first ever Minister for the Night-time Economy and 24-Hour Economy Commissioner made it clear they wanted to work in partnership – with venues, promoters, cultural institutions, and in a break from the past, local governments. Ideas were openly invited. Policy ideas tested and piloted.

These were built into broader programs: legislated special entertainment precincts created a framework for nightlife precincts with local businesses, residents and councils, an uptown precincts accelerator boosted local nightlife districts, along with specific reforms from loading zones for musicians dropping off gear to getting rid of the ludicrous ban on mirror balls.

Early on, there were grumbles about the pace of delivery. You could have been excused for thinking this was due to the small size of the team and their newness to government. But in retrospect, you can see them laying the groundwork for what now looks more like the second approach to change, building consensus, getting things done, building the trust needed to take on bigger challenges. 

You can see that bearing fruit in bold policy trials now underway.

For example, Australia’s coolest neighbourhood for 2025 – Burwood – now sees itself as a “testing ground for opportunities.” As the council’s Miriam Wassef explains: “It’s coming from a place of how can we, instead of why we can’t.”

With Australia’s highest proportional migration (more than 35 per cent of residents arrived in the last five years), Burwood is now rolling out a 12-month pilot under the banner Licence to Play to enable third party activations to happen faster and cheaper, with trials of predesignated busking spots, bookable streets with approvals in place, and fast-tracked activations on public land.

Another example is Inner West Council’s 2 am trial, underway across key precincts Enmore Road, King and Darling streets in Balmain & Rozelle, Norton Street, Leichhardt, Ashfield and Dulwich Hill, which overrides conditions of consent on venues allowing them to trade later.

As strategic planner Jarrad Sheather made clear, strong support from the Mayor and councillors and an overwhelmingly positive response from communities created space to take calculated risks. Several Enmore Road bars are already staying open later. 

Sydney and the state’s nighttime economy now drives some $56-102 billion in turnover, with 45,000 businesses and 300,000 employees.

More work to be done, no doubt – both on the reform journey, and the long tail of behaviour change among venue operators, promoters, landlords, regulators, culture leaders, police, audiences and the community at large – but what’s clear is Sydney’s moving into a policy leadership position with growing trust in the potential for positive change.

That’s important, because we have a bigger challenge to take on. Two new reports make the case for reshaping cities around a truly 24 hour economy: Saiful Salihudin and Andreina Seijas’s World Economic Forum briefing paper, Unlocking the potential of 24 hour economies, and the NSW Productivity Commissioner’s Review of regulatory barriers impeding a vibrant 24 hour economy.

At a time when the limits to growth seem all too clear, the opportunity here is to diversify activity across the hours of the day, increase asset utilisation, align with changing community expectations and behaviour, and tap into underutilised labour pools. To deliver on this calls for significant continued reform, including:

• More responsive public services, such as transport, toilets and libraries that operate when people want to use them, with adequate lighting and wayfinding – for example, Paris is keeping its parks, plazas and open spaces open later to give people an escape from the heat, while Seoul has extended its public library hours
• Addressing structural blocks, including outdated taxation and planning controls, or limited access to capital – and providing a stable policy environment that encourages business to double down and invest
• Making sure our urban areas work for people who work at night – for example, Braga is providing 24-hour childcare services, while Manila’s call centre sector has inspired “sunrise happy hour” for when workers clock off bright and early.

None of which is possible without effective data, benchmarking and monitoring. As 24 Hour Economy Commissioner Mike Rodrigues said, “If you don’t have the data in place, the commentary ends up being driven by anecdotal experience. You need benchmarks and monitoring to show what’s really going on.”

The way forward is the way we’ve come. Piloting flexible models close to where people live. More distributed governance and equitable investment. Testing out operational models that align staffing, pricing and logistics with real time demand. Long term thinking, short term testing, doing the work to build a new way of living and working in our city.

Instead of the traditional 9-5 our cities revolved around in the past, we’re talking about a city that kicks on well into the night, with the hubbub of logistics centres and care workers that hold our city together, right through to the buzz of run clubs and early AM coffee catchups.

That’s how we’re already living in Sydney, we just need to make sure the policy settings keep up.

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