TOP Australian DJ Alison Wonderland has slammed Mike Baird online over the controversial lockout laws and for turning the once vibrant Sydney into a “laughing stock internationally”.

An obviously frustrated Wonderland said she was embarrassed about the state of Sydney, and berated the NSW Premier for not listening to Australian youth.

“You obviously don’t listen to anyone younger than you, so perhaps you’ll listen to someone who travels abroad more than you,” she wrote on Twitter.

“Our beloved Sydney’s reputation has taken a f**king battering & words can’t explain how embarrassed I am that my home, the most beautiful and once most vibrant city in the world has become a laughing stock internationally.

“Everywhere I go from mainland Europe to middle America (Literally discussed this with random people in Milwaukee the other night) people are asking me if it’s true that Sydney has become a nanny state and voice their genuine concerns about visiting it. Those who have recently are vowing not to return. Yet Melbourne (sans lockout) moves ahead safely and prosperously.

“I miss the feeling of being able to discover music while exploring Sydney. That’s what made me fall in love with what I do. Sydney is now a ghost town.

Go on... keep arrogantly ignoring us. It seems to have worked well for your predecessors. This is not footloose.”

Fellow DJ Nina Las Vegas — who wrote, “As a nightclub DJ and promoter, I can’t work within the lockout zones and am continually explaining to international visitors WHY our city is no longer somewhere you would want to perform” yesterday — commented on Wonderland’s post with support.

There is now a petition for the resignation of @mikebairdMP over the sordid affair! #nswpol #auspol https://t.co/EU7nGtDWGZ — Matt Barrie (@matt_barrie) February 10, 2016

The original author of the 8000-word rant that prompted the debate, businessman Matt Barrie, is now supporting a petition that calls for Mr Baird to resign, saying he is “out of touch” and has “no understanding of his own city”. It currently has less than 1000 signatures.

Mr Baird copped plenty of criticism after he took to Facebook yesterday to return fire on Sydney’s lockout laws, branding claims they have turned the city into a ghost town “hysterical”.

In a scathingly non-apologetic post, Mr Baird said the lockout laws had “neither shut down the city, nor killed its night-life”.

“Let’s start with a statistic about Sydney’s night-life that matters: alcohol related assaults have decreased by 42.2 per cent in the CBD since we introduced the ‘lockout laws’, and they’re down by over 60 per cent in Kings Cross,” Mr Baird wrote.

“But … didn’t we achieve this by shutting down the whole city and killing its night-life?

“Well, one last statistic: the number of small bars in Sydney has more than doubled in the same time period.

“There has been a growing hysteria this week about night-life in Sydney.

“The main complaints seem to be that you can’t drink till dawn any more and you can’t impulse-buy a bottle of white after 10pm.

“I understand that this presents an inconvenience. Some say this makes us an international embarrassment.

“Except, assaults are down by 42.2 per cent.

“And there is nothing embarrassing about that.”

Let’s start with a statistic about Sydney’s nightlife that matters: alcohol related assaults have decreased by 42.2 per... Posted by Mike Baird on Monday, 8 February 2016

Matt Barrie was quick to return fire, replying via Facebook with a few statistics of his own.

“I am glad you finally found your social media logins,” he replied to Mr Baird.

“Here’s a statistic for you … 927,000 reads of my article, and of 950 comments, 84.9 per cent agreed that you have destroyed the city’s reputation, small business, jobs or Sydney’s social and cultural fabric, 8.75 were neutral and only 6.4 per cent agreed with you.”

That sentiment quickly became obvious as replies to Mr Baird’s Facebook post approached 1000, with users accusing the Premier of everything from using rubbery figures, being selective with his statistics, out of touch, and hypocritical in the way lockout laws were applied — especially with casinos exempt.

“I like you a lot as a premier, but you’re just flat out NOT telling the truth. Of course confining people to their homes reduces violence. But violence per capita is up, it’s increased according to BOSCAR in surrounding suburbs and violence at the Star Casino is also up. You’re also ignoring the fact that violence was trending downwards anyway,” said one Sydney businessman.

“Obviously the violence statistic is going to go down if there are far less people out and about in those areas,” said another user.

“You have destroyed our city. Businesses cannot survive because there is literally no one on the streets after midnight. International tourist are being refused entry into bars because they are accused of being intoxicated. Bars are constantly being harassed by the police to comply with unreasonable service of alcohol laws,” said another.

“When you can explain to me why the casinos (existing and approved) are exempt I might be a touch more enthusiastic. Agree with it in principle but could use some tweaking. I find the casino exemption hypocritical beyond belief,” another respondent offered.

“If the lockout laws are working extend them to the Star (casino),” another posted.

‘WHY ARE YOU DELETING COMMENTS EN MASSE?’

Mike Baird’s social media manager denied Facebook users’ claims that his team was deleting thousands of comments from the Premier’s lockout laws post.

One user, Andrew Bagnall, said: “They are depeting (sic) them rapidly. About 2000 comments dissapeared (sic). Why are you deleting comments en masse?”

Another user, Cliff Jones, reported that on his mobile Facebook, there are nearly 8,000 comments on the thread, while on his iPad there are just 5,600.

One even claimed that “over 20,000 comments” have been deleted since 4pm.

Some users have speculated that Baird’s team is trying to keep the ratio of comments to likes as even as possible.

User Steve Zappa said: “If your social media team stopped deleting comments, there would be close to 10K right now. Definitely gotta keep a good Like/Comment ratio though hey Mike?”

Mike Baird’s social media manager told news.com.au: “It is absolutely not true we are deleting posts. Not one single post. Facebook’s profanity filter may be hiding some, but zero manual deletes. We would normally delete abusive or threatening posts but we have let this thread run totally free.

“One thing I have observed today... Some ‘counts’ of comments include only the original comment while on other platforms (iPad for example) it seems to also count replies to comments in the tally. When news orgs embed the post it shows a higher tally too. But it’s a Facebook discrepancy, nothing on our end.”

Another spokesperson for the Premier said: “Comments that include swearing are automatically hidden by Facebook but we have not deleted one comment today.”

‘THIS CITY IS NOW SAFER AND MORE VIBRANT THAN EVER’

Mr Baird said lockout laws from the outset had been about “facing a serious problem” and happily wore accusations they were about “moralising”.

“Violence had spiralled out of control, people were literally being punched to death in the city, and there were city streets too dangerous to stroll down on a Friday night,” he said.

“The community was rightly outraged. I met face to face with the families of victims. You don’t need to see that sort of pain too often to realise there is a problem that needs fixing.

“Now, some have suggested these laws are really about moralising. They are right.

“These laws are about the moral obligation we have to protect innocent people from drunken violence.

“Now some, who wish to define our city by one street on Kings Cross, make the hysterical claim that Sydney is dead.

“They couldn’t be more wrong. This is the greatest city in the world and it is now safer and more vibrant than ever. Long Live Sydney.”

Mr Baird’s post said there were less emergency room presentations on weekends, trains were safer and “residents across the city, particularly women, are telling us they feel safer walking home at night”.

Calls for state-wide lockout laws There has been calls for state-wide late-night lockout laws after 'spectacular' results in inner Sydney.

While conceding some of that evidence was anecdotal, he added that “lots of hard data is starting to come in. And it is all telling a similar story”.

“Over the coming months a detailed review into the effects of the lockout laws will be undertaken. I await this work with interest. But it is going to take a lot for me to change my mind on a policy that is so clearly improving this city,” he said.

That Mr Baird is listening to “anecdotal evidence” is good news for lockout law opponents Keep Sydney Open, whose spokesman Tyson Koh said had gathered anecdotal evidence of its own — which shows the success of the laws isn’t quite what it appears.

A petition run by Keep Sydney Open to soften the laws, established when they were introduced in 2014, has grown by 15,000 since last week to more than 36,000 signatories in the wake of Matt Barrie’s comments.

Mr Koh said the crime figures referenced by Mr Baird paid no heed to the reduction of foot traffic in Kings Cross since the laws took effect, and called for measures including an increased police presence. He also said it was important to “put the responsibility on individuals rather than the venues themselves as a more realistic solution to the problem”.

“The picture being painted about the success of the lockout laws isn’t quite as black and white as supporters would have it appear,” he said.

“While assaults may be down 40 per cent in Kings Cross, there has been an even bigger decline in total foot traffic — which means proportionally the area may be worse than ever,” he said.

Mr Koh said the lockout laws had been a failure, with effects reaching far beyond the crime figures and the estimated 20 licenced premises which have gone to the wall.

“Our investigations of the effects put at 600 the direct number of jobs lost, and at losses reaching into the tens of millions financially,” he said.

“While nobody disagrees that the city’s streets should be safer, we disagree that this is the way to do this.”

Keep Sydney Open argues that a higher police presence on the street would put the onus back on the individuals — rather than on businesses “who are now struggling to survive”.

“We want smarter solutions than a lockout,” Mr Koh said.

“We want an approach to preventing assaults which examines transport, CCTV, tougher sentencing, density and diversity of licensed premises, venue management, culture as a placating tool and the tendency towards violence among certain groups of individuals.”