Cunliffe David: Sale of Liquor (Objections to Applications) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Cunliffe David: Sale of Liquor (Objections to Applications) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:17162] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Health) 
: 
 I rise to take a short call in support of the Sale of Liquor (Objections to Applications) Amendment Bill. In doing so I acknowledge the contribution made by the member who has just returned to his seat Rodney Hide. All members of this House share a motivation to ensure that the harm caused by alcohol in our society particularly in respect of our young people is minimised while at the same time respecting the fact that people make their own decisions about how and whether they consume alcohol. 
There is no question about the member’s motivation which I think is shared by the whole House. Where I think many of us differ from him is that although none of us would pretend that this bill is a complete solution most of us feel that it is a step in the right direction. We owe a great deal of thanks to the Hon George Hawkins for this bill; he has done a fine job as a local MP in an area hard-pressed by this problem. The step that the bill takes is to give the communities concerned more of an opportunity to have a say in the licensing of alcohol-selling premises. 
It is my understanding that the number of liquor outlets in South Auckland has increased from 80 to more than 220 over the last couple of years. We are finding ourselves in the situation where alcohol is literally being sold in corner dairies as well as in superettes and major liquor chains. That makes it not only harder for the authorities to police the sale of alcohol but more tempting perhaps for under-age purchasers or their friends to support an under-age drinking habit. 
I cannot get past the statistic that I read in the recently released New Zealand Health Survey which is a comprehensive survey of 17000 New Zealanders. Great progress has been made in many areas of the health system but the statistic that jumped out and hit me was that 54 percent—more than half—of our young men aged between 16 and 25 consume alcohol in a way that is likely to be injurious to their health. Fifty-four percent of our young men consume alcohol in a dangerous way. I was shocked by that statistic and I am still shocked by it because it shows that this issue is not just about a few young people getting wasted on Friday night; this is about a wholesale social failure to deal with a very deeply ingrained issue in our society. 
I agree with Mr Hide that we have to look very hard in the mirror and ask ourselves what it is about New Zealand society that we allow this problem to go on. We have not confronted the alienation the need for escapism or whatever it is that is contributing to so many young people indulging in alcohol in a way that is dangerous to them and dangerous to others. The social cost is frankly immeasurable. It goes so far beyond the cost of treating the direct victims through liver damage or domestic violence; it is measured in terms of children’s opportunities being forgone marriages being destroyed and lives never reaching their potential because a drinking habit becomes a disease. 
I recently attended a meeting called by the leaders of the South Asian community in response to the tragic death of a young man who had a liquor outlet in South Auckland and who was shot in cold blood by someone seeking to steal alcohol from those premises. The message from the Sikh and the Indian communities was: “Enough already. We have had enough deaths of store owners.” In a small way this bill is part of the response of the people of New Zealand through our Parliament to that tragedy too. It is a way of saying that we need to think as a community about how many liquor outlets are allowed to open and about how they are run. That is not a substitute for better education it is not a substitute for thinking more about the means by which alcohol is purchased—and I expect that more work will be done around this bill—but let us commend this bill and the work of its sponsor as a step forward in making our society a somewhat less hazardous and dysfunctional place.