te Heuheu Georgina: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:608;Page:5418] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (NZ National) 
: 
 That exchange we heard between Dail Jones and Rod Donald demonstrates how ridiculous this whole situation is. The Minister in charge—he is pretending to be in charge—Mr Anderton sat there and let that ridiculous exchange go on. And I do not mean to be disrespectful of my colleague Dail Jones. 
This bill states that it aims to protect or make an impact on young people drinking. The Minister in his opening speech when he introduced the bill tried to pull the wool over the eyes of all of us here and pretend that that was the case. Now we find thanks to the good research of colleagues of ours in the Committee who have all those bottles lined up over there that the drinks that a lot of young people love are not even covered by this legislation. I think it is a confusing situation. The Minister should get to his feet and explain what he means when he says that the bill is aimed at harm minimisation and at having an impact on the binge drinking that goes on. We find that a lot of the drinks that young people love are not covered. 
I ask the Minister given that we were not all in the House to hear his opening speech to stand up and reconcile what is an obvious anomaly given that the bill says one thing yet does something else. The Minister should not look like that; he should stand up and tell us why the bottles of drinks lined up over there are not covered by this legislation. Have the members on the Government side ever gone out on a Friday night? Have they ever gone out on New Year’s Eve and seen what the young people drink? Actually when they are getting really sloshed they drink anything but to start with a lot of them are drinking the drinks that are lined up on this side of the Committee. Mr Mark and Mr Nick Smith I think went out and got those bottles. 
I ask the Minister to stand up and tell us why those drinks are not included in this legislation. If he does not do that then that shows the utter disdain that this Government and this Minister have for the public of New Zealand. The way that they have brought in this legislation tonight and kept us here all night also shows disdain. They are entirely cynical about what they do and say. 
I would like Paul Adams to tell us whether he has actually seen what young people drink and whether he understands the issues around young people and drink. He said that we cannot legislate behaviour; so why does he support this bill? According to the Minister this bill is aimed at doing just that or so he says. Paul Adams said that we cannot influence behaviour. Who knows why that party supports the bill other than the fact that it is a poodle party? That is what it amounts to. All that that party’s members do is stand up and support bills and they cannot even understand why they are doing it. 
The Minister continues to sit there and show disdain for this Committee and for the public of New Zealand and will not reconcile the things he says with some of the information that has come out during the debate. Is it any wonder that members of the public are getting terribly cynical about this Government and its supporters the Greens and United Future? There will come a time and it is coming quite soon when people are not able to believe anything the Government says. 
Just briefly I want to turn to the issue of young Maori drinkers. I was pretty proud of most of the Maori members of the House on the night that the legislation lowering the drinking age was passed into law. I think that nearly 90 percent of all Maori members in this House voted against the lowering of the drinking age. Why did we do that? Because we are very much aware of the harm that drinking does in young Maori communities. I want the Minister to take a call and tell this Committee how this legislation will impact on and minimise drinking in Maori communities.