Venues offering live music or cultural events can extend their trading hours by 2 hours on nights they host live performances and by 1 hour on other nights. Special Entertainment Precincts have the power to automatically adjust trading hours for venues through development consents (Liquor Act amendments)?

Restaurants and small bars can now get permission to sell alcohol in cans/bottles etc for takeaway or home delivery, provided they don’t sell to kids or people who are already blind drunk. Also, liquor producers can run more than one premises under a single licence as long as they’re within 10km of each other (20km for regional)

The temporary measures introduced during the pandemic to allow outdoor dining on private property (e.g., courtyards) are now permanent. Venues can also use car parking spaces for outdoor dining, although this does not permit increasing patron capacity. Councils have ongoing powers to approve temporary street closures for outdoor dining and performances without requiring additional state government approval?

Incident register requirements now mandate that incidents be recorded within 24 hours, supporting timely investigations. Additionally, a new framework allows Liquor & Gaming NSW to issue improvement notices for minor breaches, so that venues have the opportunity to correct issues before facing stricter penalties?

new compliance pathway will require councils to consider vibrancy guidelines when assessing applications to extend venue operating hours beyond 7pm.