OPINION They killed the nightlife. Now? The bureaucracy is coming for brunch.
BY: Kartya Vucetic
It’s become a full-blown Sydney personality trait to complain about a $7 oat latte. And sure, that’s borderline offensive. But while we’re busy whingeing about brunch, it’s easy to forget about the people behind the counter.
Newsflash: they’re not exactly raking it in.
According to new data from ASIC, 814 hospitality businesses across NSW have gone into administration in the past year. This is the highest figure in over five years. Nationally, it’s more than 1,400 closures, a brutal spike that far outpaces any year of COVID.
It’s estimated that for each coffee sold in Sydney, there’s only about 50c to $1 of profit. That figure also excludes things like tax, staff superannuation, and unexpected costs that naturally arise in any business.
It’s easy to blame the pandemic. In fact, a lot of government statements still do. But here’s the thing, we’re well past lockdowns. This isn’t about JobKeeper ending or QR codes on café doors. This is about what’s come after: a cost-of-doing-business crisis colliding with a city buried in red tape.
Sydney’s hospitality sector was already fragile. We saw it with nightlife venues choked out by lockouts, curfews, and endless compliance. And now that same playbook is creeping into our daytime economy. Opening a small bar or café in this city means signing up for sky-high rents, ballooning energy bills, rising wages, licensing headaches, and a Kafkaesque council process just to serve a drink after 10pm.
Meet Kings Cross, where this all started.
Venue owners are burning out. Not because they can’t cook or run a business, but because they’re caught in a system that keeps asking more, offering less, and pretending this is still about COVID. It’s not. It’s about policy failure, and a cost-of-living crisis that’s yet to be addressed.
And sure, the cost of brunch is wild. But most of that money isn’t going into anyone’s pocket, it’s merely covering overheads. A $24 eggs benny barely dents the pile of bills these places are staring down. They’re cutting hours, trimming menus, and praying the dishwasher doesn’t break, because one hiccup could mean the end.
What the sector is asking for isn’t outrageous: temporary relief for energy bills. A freeze on skyrocketing fees. Faster, simpler visa pathways to get staff in the door. A policy that actually affords people some spending money to eat out. And above all, a government that stops blaming COVID and starts addressing the real problem at hand.
Because if we keep going like this, we’re not just losing cute cafés and cool bars. We’re losing Sydney’s cultural identity .
