Little Andrew: Alcohol Reform Bill — Procedure In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Little Andrew: Alcohol Reform Bill — Procedure In Committee 
[Sitting date: 23 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6099. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW LITTLE (Labour) 
: 
 I appreciate the opportunity to take a call on the Alcohol Reform Bill. There is no question as many of those who have contributed to the debate so far today have acknowledged that alcohol has become—if indeed it has ever ceased to be—a most insidious influence on society and in our community. Part of the problem as we have all acknowledged is that we continue to debate alcohol law reform as if it were a moral issue or as if it were something other than what it actually is which is a health issue. Alcohol is a drug. It is a drug that has won considerable social acceptance over decades—indeed centuries—so we confer upon it a status that we would not give any other comparable substance. And indeed we eschew other substances that have as much of if not a greater impact as alcohol. So we debate this in a funny context and at a difficult time. 
Perhaps the other thing that has happened more so in the last 20 years than prior to that is the considerable financial stake that many businesses and individuals now have in the peddling of this particular drug under the cover of it being socially acceptable. In that respect the Supplementary Order Papers that go to new Part 2A particularly Supplementary Order Paper 91 from Iain Lees-Galloway and Supplementary Order Paper 115 from my other colleague Dr David Clark provide restrictions on the marketing of alcohol that are in my submission absolutely critical. If we are serious about alcohol sale and distribution and we wish to do something that is meaningfully going to address the serious problems that all the evidence tells us now prevail—the problem of a growing number an excessive number of people turning up at our emergency departments every weekend seeking care and help because of their alcohol-related and alcohol-inflicted wounds; because of the number of young people who are falling prey to the blandishments of alcohol and brewing companies and suffering the health effects as a consequence and not just young people but the older people who continue or who have embarked on habits that are causing major health effects and other costs in the health system. If we are serious about addressing those and accepting those as a social problem then it is incumbent on this Parliament to regulate appropriately and accordingly. 
When it comes to marketing and advertising this Parliament can provide leadership can discharge its responsibilities as a tribunal of the people and can do something meaningful about it. That does mean confronting some of those large and wealthy vested interests and saying that we do not wish to continue the social problems that prevail and that we do not wish to decline to do something in the face of something we know we can do something about. Regulating the advertising and the marketing is a response that this Parliament can make that will confront the vested interests and it is vital if we are going to address and meet those public health demands that are on us. 
Te Ururoa Flavell’s Supplementary Order Paper 81 and his proposed amendment which is the ban to take effect in 2 years is a very harsh initiative. That is a very harsh initiative. The sad reality as he points out in his own explanatory note is that there are many sports clubs and similar organisations that have become dependent on the support they get from the brewing companies and other marketers of alcohol if not for their survival then to at least provide them with a source of support and finance that enables them to function in the way that they do. It would be most desirable in my submission to remove alcohol and alcohol branding and marketing from sports activities and sports functions but at the moment we need to focus on those things that are achievable and possible and credible. For those reasons I will be supporting the Supplementary Order Papers of my colleagues Mr Lees-Galloway and Dr Clark because they focus on the very immediate and very insidious advertising and reach that the alcohol companies currently engage in. They have an obvious target and it is the young. The style of the advertising is so often clearly aimed at those who are on the precipice of making or those who are just starting to make their decisions and choices about alcohol. 
There is no matching or corresponding advertising—public-good advertising you might say—about the deleterious effects of alcohol apart from perhaps on the traffic front. Certainly our Ministry of Transport has spent a large amount of money on the drink-driving issue. But in terms of providing that information that enables particularly young people embarking on their life habits including habits around the consumption of alcohol there is no social-good advertising that informs people or educates people about making an informed choice about the consumption of alcohol—about the impact for example of the hard liquors; about the impact of volumes of alcohol and the impact that they can have; and about the long-term consequences on the organs of the body. So I think that in that context and knowing the vast sums of money that get spent to pitch to young people—and to other sectors of the community too but predominantly to young people which is why they get into the sports clubs and the sports activities—that calls out for a responsible approach from this Parliament. 
That should be underscored by the very call that members of the public have been making that submitters to the bill made and indeed members in the last few hours this afternoon have been making for this Parliament to do something meaningful and therefore substantial. The “frilly bits” approach that has been taken by the bill to date is clearly not intended on the face of the bill to date to have any meaningful impact at all. If it is intended to the reality is that the legislation as it currently stands and without the sorts of amendments that we are currently debating is not going to have any impact. So I simply record my views and my intentions in this regard. I do so because I consider like all of us that I am responsible in my representation role and in discharging my responsibilities as a member of this Parliament. Knowing the social ill that now sits at the feet of the alcohol industry we are called upon to respond and to react and to provide proper and meaningful regulation of this part of this industry without depriving those who can consume responsibly and all the injunctions we get about that. These types of measures that are provided for in these two Supplementary Order Papers are crucial and necessary. I will be supporting those.