NSW Labor wants trial of booze crackdown

Police and other frontline workers dealing with the violence on Sydney streets privately support a trial of Newcastle-style restrictions on pubs and clubs, the NSW opposition leader says.

John Robertson has repeated his call for an 18-month trial of measures designed to cut alcohol-fuelled crime after 540 people were arrested in NSW over the weekend during Operation Unite, a police crackdown on drunkenness across New Zealand and Australia.

He says tough liquor reforms introduced in Newcastle five years ago, including restrictions on alcohol sales and opening hours, have cut alcohol-related assaults by 26 per cent.

"The police privately are telling me that something needs to happen and that the Newcastle-style lock-outs are a step in the right direction," he told reporters on Monday.

"All the people on the frontline, whether it's the police that are cleaning up the mess on the streets, whether it's the doctors and nurses that are trying to put people back together after alcohol-fuelled incidents - all of them are saying the same thing and that is: trial the lock-outs, do what is required to end the violence."

Deputy Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas has spoken out about the need to address alcohol-fuelled violence but has not explicitly called for Newcastle-style restrictions to be introduced in more locations.

"We would support any measure, any initiative that will help us drive this violent crime down," he told Fairfax Radio on Monday.

"Really the underlying problem remains - that this culture of binge drinking (and) pre-loading and so on, for some reason it's become acceptable."

A 23-year-old man remains in a critical condition in Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital after he was punched and stomped on in front of dozens of revellers at Bondi Beach in the early hours of Saturday morning.

He was one of several men king hit over the weekend.

Premier Barry O'Farrell and Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione will speak about Operation Unite in Sydney at 11am (AEDT).

Source: The Australian, 16 December 2013