Star Online

By the mid-’90s, the future of Sydney’s Bear community was looking dire. Close to the extinction list, many were asking whether ‘Bear’ as an identity was still relevant to the gay men of Sydney.

A preposterous thought now, as the Harbour City Bears — one of the largest, and most high-profile gay and lesbian clubs in Australia — celebrates 15 years of furry friendship, solidarity among solid men.

In early 1995 Sydney’s original Bear congregation, Ozbears, found itself grinding to a halt. Five years after they began, then president of Ozbears, Bob Hay, was forced to inform members that the club would be shutting, citing a lack of interest as a main reason.

Not content to accept this as anything other than a natural hibernation period in a Bear’s life, a committed few came together for discussions in August 1995 at the now defunct Stronghold Bar in Surry Hills.

Harbour City Bears was born that night, with Julian Farrell, Seumas Hyslop, Geoff Ostling and Joe Chapman forming a loose but dedicated committee, presided over by David Coburn, the club’s first den convenor.

“It was primarily a social club for Bears and their admirers,” Hyslop recounted. “We didn’t have any major aims at that time, other than to provide a social environment for members.

“No great lofty aims to start with — we were just proud it was instantly successful.”

Instantly successful, and still so, HCB has not ceased growing. Incorporated in 1997, the club passed the milestone of 700 members earlier this year, an achievement all those interviewed agreed could be attributed to the open attitude of members and the committee, not to mention the fun to be found at HCB’s now world-renowned social events.

Migrating their way across the plains of Surry Hills and Darlinghurst, the Bears have made their dens at the Barracks, the Flinders, the Oxford, most recently at the Lord Roberts, and of course, the original Beresford.

“Many recall those as the best days of the club,” Hyslop said. “It became so popular, it would spill out on to the laneway — back before police would come and move people on.”

A place of many unpublishable stories (including many a tale of the elusive Trough Man), Murray Mills (who joined the HCB committee in 1999) recalled the Beresford as a place where the licensee would “smile and walk the other way” to many a debuached though essentially good-natured sight.

“I remember one committee member in a fur lap-lap, pole dancing at the [Sydney] Gay Games Underbear Party at the Beresford,” Mills laughed.

“And I have great memories of the street party we had in the laneway next to Beresford after it closed, so we could all say goodbye.”

The site of the first Bear Essentials in 1996, it was at the Beresford that the Bears started building their reputation as the purveyors of some of Sydney’s finest parties, to be sought out by locals and international visitors alike.

In the 2000s, as Mardi Gras’ popularity was waning, the Bears were still flourishing.

Drawing roars of approval from parade crowds for their Bears of Australia entries, the admiration continued on the dancefloor.

“Bears of Australia: From Country to Coast, was one of the club’s first marching boy routines,” Mills recounted.

“It stood out, with 12 men in cowboy outfits of gold lame vest and black chaps, while another dozen marched in old-style swimwear and sashes printed with ‘Bondage Beach’ … some of us still have difficulties listening to Beach Baby or Life at the Outpost without a smile.”

“The level of talent and commitment that our volunteers showed getting those Mardi Gras entries and the parties together was amazing, and something I’m very proud of,” Bears president from 2003-05, Barry Taylor added.

“In 2005, we won the prize for best community float, and I remember this guy just furiously working to make our costumes. People were always very generous about that. We always did stuff on the cost of an oily rag, but people didn’t know that.

“I think one of the greatest compliments I ever received was when an overseas visitor, who worked in events management, asked me whether we used an events company.

“The Bears have always been known for being open, welcoming and having fun. Word spread pretty quickly that our Friday nights were fun, and a place where masculinity was really embraced.

“The club started as a social club, though an element of community service has always  been there too — we were always involved in projects to raise awareness about safe sex, or to help someone out — but to me, the greatest thing the Bears did was to say that there are many ways to be handsome.

“As a group, we let men know that you didn’t have to buy into a stereotype, which meant a lot of men, who might otherwise not have come out, came out.

“I watched a lot of people blossom by coming to Bears events — it’s been a truly amazing sight.”

Current president Jonny Bastin, who has further extended the welcoming paw through events like SydCubz — specifically put on for new and young members — similarly saw HCB events as a place to “celebrate being ourselves”.

“Many members of HCB have had a hard time in the past, not feeling accepted by the wider gay community where the focus is so often on the so-called body beautiful.

“Many young cubs have the feeling of coming out twice, first as a gay man, and then as a Bear,” he laughed.

Download the Bear Pride liftout

To Taylor, the early aims of “providing a welcoming space and encouraging bear culture” have not only been achieved, but exceeded initial expectations.

“What we have seen since, is a heightened acceptance of Bears.

“There has been real recognition of Bears as a subculture and real acceptance in the broader community.”

That acceptance, and in many cases real love felt in the community for those affable furry-folk, can in some part be attributed to profile-raising events like the Mr Harbour City Bear Competition, which began in 2009, but is in no small part a reflection of HCB’s enduring commitment to the community itself.

Involvement in the community — raising money and awareness for various causes and groups — has been an integral part of the club’s history, though many self-effacing members would try to downplay its importance.

“HCB isn’t any greater or lesser because of its charity work,” Hyslop said. “They just do it, and that’s commendable, but it doesn’t make the club any more important.”

Mills was also nonchalant, simply recognising that it has always been a part of what the club did, no biggie.

But 15 years of posing for some of the sexiest safe-sex campaigns around, and 15 years of raising money for everything from HIV charities to the Rangers Football Club is nothing to be sniped at, and is an element of the club’s spirit which is widely recognised as one of their most endearing traits.

“The work that former presidents like Murray Mills and Barry Taylor have done with the club and the community has been really inspiring to us,” Bastin said.

“We want to ensure that the club continues down that path.

“Former vice-president John Richardson and I see great potential in making HCB more than a social club.

“Today we work with an amazing array of different organisations [including the Inspire foundation, an organisation devoted to assisting youths with depression and mental illness].

“It’s that community involvement that will ensure others outside the Bear and cub movement get to know us, and that HCB will have more of a say and get to be more involved with the community.”

As HCB move into the next 15 years and beyond, presidents past and present are eager to see the club expand and strengthen.

“I want the club to grow and stay with us for a very long time,” Mills said.

“I’ve often joked, that I’d like to be chasing young cubs around the bar when I’m using a Zimmer frame.”

For Hyslop, there are inherent dangers in growing to big, too fast.

“There’s an increasing fragmentation going on in the Bear community,” he said.

“Fifteen years ago, Bear clubs were flourishing all over the world as they were the way to meet other Bears and admirers, back before it was mainstream.

“Now Bears are recognised as a subculture in the GLBT community, you can meet Bears in all sorts of places and online. So there’s probably a niche role in putting on smaller, cosier events that allow for easier interaction. It would be good to see those events get some official status within the Bear club infrastructure.”

All this and more is sure to be debated at the sparkling jewel of the birthday shenanigans, the club’s official Anniversary Dinner, to be held on Thursday, August 19, at the Russian Coachman in Surry Hills.

Open to members new and old, Mark Alsop will be present, spinning an array of nostalgia-inducing and unendingly danceable tracks, for anyone who feels like working off part of the three-course meal.

“Everyone’s welcome to come along, especially new members,” Bastin said.

“I hope to see lots of faces from the past though, because this will be a night to remember the last 15 years, as well as looking to the future.

“It’s going to be a fun opportunity to meet up with friends, celebrate the good things about the club and acknowledge all the work of our previous committee members and all the people who have volunteered over the years.”

“It’s going to be a fantastic night to really commend and celebrate all those people who have worked so hard to set up and maintain this club — the presidents, the committees and the members,” Taylor agreed.

For others who want to raise their glasses to toast the Bears, and add their voices to the cheers for furry, fabulous men in the world, there will also be a Crystal Ball on Saturday, August 21, at the Oxford Art Factory.

info: For more information, visit www.bearpride.com.au

The relationship between biographer and subject can be fraught but particularly so when it’s an unauthorised biography of one of Sydney’s most salacious personalities — Gretel Pinniger aka Madame Lash.

Written over several years, with input from the famous dominatrix, Madam Lash: Gretel Pinniger’s Scandalous Life of Sex, Art and Bondage was to be launched at a decadent party at the Kirk, the church owned by Pinniger, in her presence.

On the morning of the launch, however, Pinniger lashed out with a scathing attack on the book and its author, claiming the biography was full of lies.

A publicity stunt? Perhaps, but one that culminated with Pinniger sending her chauffeur to the launch party to read a statement about the hurt the book had caused her.

Author Sam Everingham told Sydney Star Observer the next day that he is optimistic that his relationship with Pinniger could be repaired.

“I think she thought it was going to be an authorised biography, but it was always going to be a whole and truthful account of an amazing and often shocking life,” Everingham said.

“She’s an amazing woman and she’s a real personality, but she’s a handful and unpredictable. Like all the best artists, she’s amazingly creative but you’ve got to treat her with care. She’s sensitive.”

Everingham’s account is full of the more well-known stories from Pinniger’s life, including an ill-fated appearance on The Mike Willesee Show and the launch of her own S/M dungeon in the 1970s, as well as her later rise in the art world as an Archibald finalist.

There are also tales of Pinniger’s childhood, shaped by an absent father and the experience of being the outsider at religious girls’ schools.

It tells of her love affairs with powerful men, including restaurateur Tony Bilson and former NSW Liberal MLC Clyde Packer (brother of Kerry). It alludes to her most enduring relationship with her benefactor — a man who has never been publicly identified and is known only as The Patron.

Aside from the personal anecdotes, the book is enjoyable as an account of Sydney’s history and its past as a city with a vibrant and dirty underground, before chrome took over and pub patrons were banned from having fun.

“She was doing amazing shows in the gay scene here back in the ’70s. She made outfits for the first Mardi Gras. She had the Game Bird shop devoted to fetish fashion,” Everingham said.

Everingham’s favourite story about Pinniger concerns the night she performed at the University of New South Wales alongside drag outfit Sylvia and the Synthetics. The bondage performance soon escalated to a live-sex-act-come-performance-art piece and Pinniger was quickly escorted off the stage by concerned security before the crowd got out of hand.

“For our generation, I look back and think, wow, we’re so tame compared to what was going on in the ’70s.”

There were also tales of Pinniger’s slave auctions and performances at the now-defunct Signal leather bar, and her integral role in encouraging Sydney’s burgeoning fetish scene.

“When she was doing it in the ’70s, it was all very new and no one was doing that really in-your-face sexuality in public, but there she was inviting the media into her dungeon,” Everingham said.

“I think it was very liberating for some people. I think there was this feeling, if someone could talk about S/M so publicly, it must be okay.

“Now people like Madonna and others have embraced it, but back when [Pinniger] was doing it, it was all new. It was underground and she brought it up to the public eye. The Madame Lash persona, I suppose, really gave a point for the S/M community to hang their hat on and feel safe.

“I think she came to hate that Madame Lash persona though. Particularly when she moved into her portraiture painting, she wanted to be seen as Gretel the artist.

“I don’t think it was ever really a part of her personality to whip men, and be the dominant one. I think she found a niche she could exploit — and did — but now she is all about her art.”

A celebrated portrait artist who has been an Archibald finalist several times, Pinniger is now devoted to a new form of art involving building up hundreds of layers of thick, circular swirls on top of past paintings.

“She has an amazing visual memory, and she can see the painting underneath that she painted 20 years ago, and remember it even though it’s been covered up by hundreds and hundreds of layers of paint now,” Everingham said.

“It took me a while to work out she was talking about the past and what’s in her mind rather than what’s on the canvas. To her, she feels it is very much a revolutionary form of art that will one day be recognised as a totally new art form.”

If not, her impact on art, bondage and Sydney’s cultural cachet will surely be enough to keep her in the history books.

info: Madam Lash: Gretel Pinniger’s Scandalous Life of Sex, Art and Bondage is now available at bookstores. RRP $30.

Editor’s note: Gretel Pinniger spells Madame Lash with an ‘e’, while Sam Everingham’s book title omits the ‘e’.

This August Harbour City Bears have plans to break through your winter blues with a fur-fest that’s sure to get you warm. Celebrating 15 years of HCB, the group will launch Bear Pride.

The festival will start with a Crystal Ball at the Russian Coachman on August 19 to commemorate the club’s sparkling record, as well as the concurrent 15-year anniversary of the international Bear flag.

The three-day festival will continue until August 21.

“August here can be pretty boring and dull. There’s not much happening,” HCB president Jonny Bastin said. “So we saw an opportunity to put something on, to bring things back to life and stop everyone complaining.”

The new festival will have a strong arts bent, with art on offer and the first all-Bear film festival. Featuring international films as well as some homegrown talent, the film festival will run over the three days of Bear Pride.

“The art exhibition we’ve been holding for the past few years, as part of Bear Essentials, has proved really popular. At the same time though, it’s sort of got lost in everything else that’s going on at that time,” Bastin said.

“We hope that this separate festival, away from that, will provide some more space to enjoy that artistic side.”

Dance parties are also on the agenda, as are meet-and-greets to welcome interstate and international Bear visitors.

“We will be advertising overseas,” Bastin told Sydney Star Observer. “We are working closely with the other Bear clubs of Australia — who have all already started registering their interest. The Bear group of South Australia have submitted films we can use, and the festival is attracting a lot of interest.

“The Bear community is quite a close community — it doesn’t matter  where you come from.

“There’s always a sense of camaraderie, and people always know that it’s going to be a really fun event.”

info: For more on the Harbour City Bears, visit www.hcbears.com

Organisers of Coffs Harbour’s first gay and lesbian festival remain unperturbed in the face of a campaign to stop the event.

Lifehouse Church, a Coffs Harbour-based religious organisation, has initiated a letter-writing campaign to stop council from providing support for CoastOut, a gay and lesbian beach festival scheduled for October.

In an email to followers, senior pastor Steve Slater encouraged people to “flood council with letters stating opposition to the festival”.

“We believe such a festival and the lifestyle it promotes would deter families from coming to Coffs as a holiday destination,” he wrote. “The lifestyle that gay and lesbian festivals promote is not one we wish Coffs to be known for and is not representative of our population.

“We do not want the city’s young people subjected to this type of influence … and do not believe any significant part of the local population would support the festival or council’s support of it.”

Slater urged others who chose to write to council not to come across as anti-gay or “too Christian”.

Despite Slater’s efforts, Coffs Harbour Council reported receiving only six signed letters from Lifehouse members, and had not received complaints from any other parts of the community.

“Is it going to be cancelled? Absolutely not. We support them financially and physically, and it will go ahead no matter what,” Coffs Harbour Council’s manager of economic development Jenny Oloman told Sydney Star Observer.

“Council cannot discriminate. We have a process of evaluation for events. Its criteria are social and economic and what the benefits are to the area. We judge everything by those same criteria and CoastOut passed with flying colours.”

CoastOut organiser Todd Buttery said there were concerns but nothing about the festival would be changed.

“We always expected some people to take issue — it’s a new gay and lesbian festival in a country town,” he said.

“It’s not going to change anything about the plans we’ve made. We’ve always planned for the events to have security. We’re working with police and security staff to ensure the safety of all participants.

“It is concerning that this [letter-writing campaign] has been organised by a particular church, who haven’t made any attempts to get in touch with us.

“CoastOut is an inclusive event. Anybody who wants to attend is welcome — any colour, creed or background is welcome.

“But it’s not compulsory, so if you don’t want to be involved you don’t have to.”

Couples therapy is no longer just for middle-class heterosexuals. Two experienced psychotherapists have launched a therapy group for gay men who want to strengthen their relationships.

For the past four years therapists Curt Mason and Peter East have run ACON’s 12-week group therapy sessions for men, focusing on issues of intimacy. That format and focus are now being extended to men in couples who want help with existing problems, or would like a pre-emptive tune-up before reaching the inevitable bumps in the gravel roads of long-term relationships.

The approach taken in the group sessions is a fluid and open one, Mason and East explained, providing a space for men to raise whatever issues they want — intimacy, monogamy, or even the very act of thinking long-term.

“We found there was a real need for this kind of therapy in the gay community. Relationships Australia doesn’t run anything for gay men, and we couldn’t find anything like it, so it was important to start it up,” Mason said.

“A lot of the issues for gay couples can be the same as [for] heterosexual, and a lot can be different, but sometimes gay men in relationships can feel a bit blind and unsure of where to go.”

Rather than seeing therapy as a last-resort option, East said the group is open to people with varying levels of need.

“Therapy was once looked at as a resource for only people who were unwell, but now it’s a much more acceptable and accesible way for people to explore any life situations that are unsatisfactory,” he said.

“It provides a space for people to look at things in a different way and relate with each other in a different way.”

Mason and East are seeking expressions of interest from couples who would like to take part before finalising session dates.

They have confirmed details for a three-day couples retreat in June, however. Held in the Govinda Valley, the retreat will incorporate meditation and yoga with therapy sessions.

info: For more information, visit www.therapyspace.com.au

ACON invites the public to share their memories from the organisation’s past 25 years.
ACON commemorates a quarter of a century of community service this year, and has established a special project to document its past through images and personal accounts.
All are invited to share information, stories and memorabilia, with select submissions being chosen to feature online.
“Over the last quarter of a century, our community has faced many challenges, chief among these being the impact of HIV/AIDS,” ACON CEO Nicolas Parkhill said.
“We’ve embraced new opportunities and had cause to celebrate many achievements. All this makes for a truly remarkable story full of courage, compassion, grief, laughter and love.
“In our silver jubilee year, ACON wants to honour the legacy of all those who have gone before us, so I encourage community members to write their own page in our community’s history by contributing whatever material they feel captures memories of or experiences with ACON over the last 25 years.
“It is important that future generations have access to this sort of archival material so they can better appreciate the people, groups and organisations that have helped shape our community.”
info: Material will be accepted throughout 2010. For more information or to submit material visit www.acon.org.au/25

The gauntlet has been thrown down — gentlemen, reach for your rolling-pins. Bake-Off is back.
The biggest baking event of the year is happening this Sunday, June 6, so contestants have a couple of days left to plan elaborate towers of cake, or to pull out their mum’s recipes for chocolate crackles. All levels of baking prowess are encouraged to take part, because all money raised goes to the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation and the work they do for people living with HIV.
There will be seven categories for judging: best cake, best professional cake, best decorated, best fete baking, best preserves, best tart and best non-edible cake.
Get arty with your sponge or just focus on producing the tastiest concoction you can if you want to take out a prize or come along to support your friends and have some fun under the auspices of your host for the day, Trevor Ashley.
For more information, visit www.bgf.org.au

The Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby have urged NSW parliamentarians to support a private member’s bill allowing same-sex adoption, soon to be introduced by Sydney MP Clover Moore.

Moore has requested a Private Member’s Bill be drawn up to allow for same-sex adoption rights.

“[The NSW Labor Government] might have said same-sex adoption is off the table, as far as a Labor Government initiating the proposal, but a private member’s bill will give the whole Parliament an opportunity to consider the issue on its own merits,” Moore told Sydney Star Observer.

“I am hoping that once I put the bill before the house, and the context of why it should be approved is considered, that I will get a response from the majority.

“When I’ve had individual conversations with members, I have had a positive response. That doesn’t necessarily mean when they end up as a party in the chamber, that will be the outcome. But I have had success with this kind of bill in the past, and believe when it’s matter of equity and human rights, the majority will see it that way and act in a humane way.”

Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby policy coordinator Senthorun Raj urged NSW parliamentarians to support such a bill.

“After the extensive inquiry that last year that called for an amendment, the Government should introduce a bill — this needs to be addressed immediately,” Raj said.

“If the Government is unwilling to act, then it is promising to see that this issue is being kept alive by other members in Parliament.

“We would encourage the Government to support this, after a decade of reform bodies suggesting the amendment should be made, this is the last piece of direct legislative discrimination that needs to be removed.”

Someone should let federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott know those oh-so-iconic budgie smugglers that have won him a portion of the ‘single mum with a daughter’ demographic were designed by a gay man — Peter Travis.

It has been 50 years since Travis designed that ultimate symbol of Australian life, the Speedo brief. Unaware of the impact his design would have on both the worlds of fashion and sport, Travis’ novel idea was simply to design a swimsuit you could actually swim in.

Speaking to Sydney Star Observer at a retrospective of his design work held at the Bondi Pavilion Gallery during NSW Seniors Week, Travis pulled out the swimsuit he wore as a young man in 1950s Manly. Made of cotton and stretching down the body like a tank top, with matching cotton shorts, it isn’t hard to imagine how liberating the introduction of some very brief briefs must have been.

“It was designed quite practically, not with fashion in mind,” Travis said. “I realised you shouldn’t have anything around your waist that would twist when you swim. The only way you could stop that would be to end the cut on your hips. It’s designed as a purely functional object.”

As a designer of everything from ceramics to kites, installations, and even the colour choices for the new Parliament House, Travis’ approach has always been simple.

“I don’t go in for anything quirky, because I just think it’s too obvious. Designing well isn’t about being different. What you’ve got to do is create something that shows your personality — because you are an individual, it will be different.

“I aim for timelessness in what I do, not just fashion.”

When Speedo Australia poached Travis from rival company Jantzen in 1960, he entered a company lacking in vision.

“When I first went into the design department, they were making all these dowdy, old-fashioned things. The man in charge really wasn’t a designer. A very nice man, and good at producing catalogues, but really their progression was about one year having four buttons on a piece, and the next year only having three,” he recalled.

“The first thing they showed me was a pair of shorts and a shirt with a Hawaiian motif. I said,

‘I’m sorry, but in the next year, everyone around the world is going to have this. A good designer never follows anyone. I will create a new fashion … I want to design a swimsuit you can swim in’. ”

Originally designed in three different sizes to accommodate different levels of modesty, the Bondi Beach swimsuit inspector was still outraged by the costume’s briefness. The inspector’s enviable task was to wander the beach, tape measure in hand, measuring people’s swimwear.

The first wearers of the now standard swimsuit were carted off on indecent exposure charges.

One wise magistrate dismissed a case on the grounds that if there was no pubic hair in public view, no harm was done.

The design has remained the choice of swimmers over the decades — real swimmers, as Travis reminded beach-goers wandering through the gallery.

Travis interrupted our interview to tell one hapless young man who had wandered in wearing board shorts, “Real swimmers wear briefs. I call those things poop-pants.”

“I’ve heard people saying things like, ‘Oh, that fat old man looks terrible in a pair of Speedos,’ and I don’t like that.

“The point is, he looks just as bad in anything else, but he shouldn’t be criticised because he wants to wear something to swim in. He’s not there for people to look at. Why shouldn’t a person who wants to swim wear that and not be criticised?”

For the same reason, Travis doesn’t mind that his invention has been picked up by Abbott.

“I thought of asking Tony to come and open the show actually — it would have been terribly funny.

“Look, he is a swimmer, and all real swimmers will wear Speedos, and they will always wear them because they’re perfect for swimming. They’re like jeans — you can decorate them and make them fancy, but in the end, people will always go back to straight jeans, because their design is based on practicality.”

Travis was acknowledged for his contribution to the Australian way of life in 2008, when he was awarded an Order of Australia. But medals are not what’s important to this prolific designer who said he caught the creator’s bug as a three-year-old, after the woman next door introduced him to macrame.

He continues to make impressive kites of kaleidoscopic colours and recently completed a stunning installation piece for a Brisbane church, which included parachute fabric, designed to look like stained-glass windows, suspended high above parishioners.

Constantly invited to speak at and work with design schools, he returned to swimwear design in one of his recent projects. When Queensland University asked him to produce some designs, Travis came up with his own answer to raunch culture and the aussieBum desire to accentuate male assets. His design features an inbuilt ‘modesty wrap’ which can be pulled out after a swim and tied around the hips to provide some cover.

Another design features an inbuilt whistle for attracting attention when in trouble — although next year’s gay lifesavers Mardi Gras entry may be equally interested in using it as an inbuilt disco whistle.

Travis is still to decide if he wants to mass produce these pieces, but he remains committed to playing with the possibilities for the practical.

Oxford St has returned to its former pink glory, with the last of the gay venues removed from the controversial 2am lock-out list on Monday.

The revised lock-out list, issued by NSW Gaming and Racing minister Kevin Greene last week, featured no gay and lesbian venues.

The Stonewall Hotel was removed from all Government lists, having reduced its rate of violent incidents by 70 percent.

The Colombian Hotel and the Exchange reduced their incident rates enough to be removed from curfew requirements. They must still serve alcohol in plastic cups after midnight, stop serving alcohol 30 minutes before closing time, and have a 10-minute alcohol time-out every hour after midnight.

Stonewall licensee Craig Bell said he was pleased to be removed from the list, but did not think the lock-out policy had been responsible for reducing crime rates.

“It’s nothing to do with the lock-out policy. The biggest improvement we’ve made has been in the number of assaults occurring before 2am. In fact, as a percentage, the assaults after 2am have increased,” he told Sydney Star Observer.

Bell said changes to security staff and the reinforcement of an existing policy to stop bar and door staff from engaging in altercations had had more impact.

He described the original criteria for being put on the lock-out list — which was based on Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures — as “unfair”. But he was pleased by the approach now being taken, which encourages police and publicans to analyse event reports together, and provides some avenue for venues to contest.

“What they’re doing now is the massive benefit to come out of this,” Bell said. “The police and Government are to be congratulated on arriving at this point, even though their idea started off the wrong way.

“Now I think they’re taking a commonsense approach, and it’s something that should have been done from the beginning.”

A spokesman for the Colombian Hotel agreed that “it’s a fairer process now”.

“There are options for venues to challenge some data. Overall though, I don’t think it’s an effective way of dealing with the issues,” the spokesman said.

“Until more onus is put on personal responsibility, it’s going to continue to be an issue.”

The Government maintained that the policy was working.

“This is the first review of 2010 and it has resulted in significant reductions in violent incidents at pubs and clubs on the list,” Greene said in a written statement.

“It is clear this scheme is driving a significant behaviour change in venues by reducing intoxication, increasing patron safety and helping to prevent alcohol-related incidents.”