gave the new drinking laws in sydney a good run over the last couple of nights.
doesn't change much really.
as long as you and your mates beat the 1.30am lockout then you're fine. drinks service stops from 3am to 5am, but if you've been on it for 7+ hours by then you're really only gonna have about 3, maybe 4 beers during that time. as much as people don't think it you're drinking rate slows pretty dramatically after about 6 hours of drinking... you can buy upto 4 drinks anyway although they could obviously go warm, get spilt or stolen in that time... what will happen is pubs will start promoting getting a bucket of beer with 4 bottles and the bucket filled with ice to keep them cold.
one thing i did notice was the crowds definitely start thinning out after the 1.30 lockout as people leaving are unable to be replaced. this isn't necessarily a bad thing - you get a bit more space to move around, and the beer queue's are a bit shorter as well.
i noticed on the news interviews with a couple of publicans who said takings were are a fair way down in comparison to last year's mardi gras weekend. i reckon what places will try and do is move the queue off the street to just inside the licensed area which should enable them to beat lockout and replace leaving customers after 1.30am... i don't know how that will work from a legal perspective.