Australia's top surgeons are pushing to keep 10pm bottleshop closures following a nine per cent drop in assaults across the state since the measures were introduced.
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But the alcohol industry is fighting for later opening times in country areas to help local businesses retain profits.
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' trauma committee believes the societal benefits are worth more than any bottom line affected by the new measures.
"There are at least 10 per cent of spouses and significant others who have not been assaulted, so many police who have not been needed to called out and there is so much societal benefit," committee chair Dr John Crozier said.
"That more than offsets any financial penalty to the publican. These [measures] aren't draconian, they are not curfews and they are not unreasonable."
The government is currently reviewing the 10pm takeaway sales ban which was introduced as part of measures to combat alcohol-related violence after the deaths of Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie.
One submission from the Liquor Stores Association NSW argues regional bottleshops should allowed to nominate 12 days on which they can sell takeaway alcohol until midnight.
It also questioned why the ban was ever introduced when the rate of alcohol-related violence across the state had been in decline for six years.
"This was a one size fits all approach was a blanket measure and did punish responsible licensees and patrons."
The state's top crime statistician, Dr Don Weatherburn, said earlier closing times of bottleshops along with other drinking restrictions were "fully attributable" to the nine per cent fall in assaults across the state between February and December 2014.
"[It's] helped reduce assault across the state as whole, outside the Sydney entertainment precinct," said Mr Weatherburn, the director of the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
He said it was a matter for people and the government to decide whether the restriction on drinking was too high a price to pay for reduced violence.
"It's really a matter for the government on whether they want to preserve that nine per cent reduction in assaults or whether they think the restriction on drinking is too high a price to pay for it," he said.
Dr Crozier said the bottleshop measures were a reasonable control that gleaned significant benefit.
"The college is very keen to move quickly to lend strong support to retaining the whole-of-jurisdiction 10pm liquor sales restriction."
The Australian Hotels Association's state branch has previously argued the ban was designed to curb alcohol-related violence in Sydney's CBD and Kings Cross but it was having an unintentional impact on country pubs.
The government review on take-away alcohol sales will first examine the impact on regional areas and then look at the effect on metropolitan areas in February next year.
