Mitchell Clayton: Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Extended licensing hours during Rugby World Cup) Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Clayton: Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Extended licensing hours during Rugby World Cup) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 26 August 2015. Volume:708;Page:6189. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): I have to say being beaten up by Wikipedia is quite an experience. Just in the spirit of this bill “Coach Bishop” although the pre-game speech was quite entertaining all that has just gone in one ear and out the other. But I do actually have to say that I support some of what you were saying because I do believe that we are living in a period of harm minimisation particularly when you compare where we have come from as a society—I have said it before—with where we are heading. It is all about the vectors on which we are travelling and if you are heading towards a high propensity for drinking then of course you are heading towards a binge drinking culture and quite the opposite. But I digress.We are going to get into Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Extended licensing hours during Rugby World Cup) Bill now and I have to say that I have actually really enjoyed the select committee process. It is a new one for me being on the Justice and Electoral Committee and I would particularly like to say I very much enjoyed the chairing of that Jacqui Dean. Thank you for your very open and very amicable way of chairing those meetings. Congratulations.David Seymour of course is the person who has put this bill down with his very intoxicated personality—sorry I mean intoxicating personality. That was a bit of a Freudian slip there. I do apologise. I can certainly see why he is putting this bill forward and we certainly know where you will be Mr Seymour on game day. I just hope we can get you here working as well.But when we actually got to sit around the table in caucus and debate this in all seriousness I have to say we had to run with the analogy—it felt like that at 5 minutes until full time David Seymour put up the high ball chased it caught it mid-air was tackled by the Greens mid-air and got a penalty. That gave him the reprieve that he needed because he came back the second day he put the high ball up and he is now running for the line. So there are a lot of people out there just waiting for the outcome of today’s voting. He has not been tackled yet but he might be and I have to say—oh I am losing my voice. Sorry people back home. Hmm! That is better. I have to say to those people back home that already the media has come out and said that this bill has gone through. It just goes to show that the media does not always get it right. It may well do but it is certainly ahead of the game in today’s standings.I want to take a little bit of a tack and just discuss the scrum that took place in our caucus discussing this bill because we took it very very seriously. New Zealand First is in a very strong position where we are not wanting to be out there singing from the rooftops that we are trying to liberalise the drinking laws. We want to also make mention of the good work that the police have been doing around the country but we get back to the ambiguity of the current Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012. This just goes to show how clunky and antiquated the current legislation is and we do actually support the Green Party on part of what it has been saying in so far as we would like to see a review put together to actually get a clearer outline on what constitutes a special licence because that is what this is about.Some councils some areas and some police around the country—and I can say openly that in Christchurch from my anecdotal evidence the police the council and the health department have been very very supportive to make sure that the majority of those special licences have actually been granted. In other parts of the country what constitutes a special licence has been interpreted in another way where some insertions that I would consider to be ridiculous have been added into the conditions for opening up for the Rugby World Cup. For example—and we have already heard it in the House; Jacqui Dean has already spoken of it—one condition was having a ticketed event so that every game has to be ticketed to make sure that you have your staff and your customers dressing up and your rooms in theme etc. etc. Yes dead right—the theme of the game is to make sure that you go to the pub because it is all about the atmosphere. If you cannot afford the tickets on your credit card so you can go and watch it live sure you want to be with your mates in the pub where the action really is.Conversely New Zealand First also equally and oppositely supports the fact that all New Zealanders should have the opportunity to watch all of these games live on their TV in the comfort of their lounge with their family with a cup of tea and a piece of toast or if they choose with a beer. Unfortunately this legislation does not quite cover that one off and we have got some work to do to try to ensure that New Zealanders can choose to stay in the comfort of their home with their family members or with a few friends who decide to get up at that time of the morning and watch the game or conversely can go down to the pub put on their scarves and start making some noise and getting behind the teams that they love. And the teams that they love of course include the All Blacks but there are many other teams that the people who live in New Zealand support: Tonga Samoa France England—you want to get behind all of the different teams from around the world.So I do also commend the select committee for looking at that objectively and saying: “Let the market determine whether it is going to be beneficial for licensed premises to open.” That is a common-sense approach because nobody unless you have got a huge Namibian group of people in your community to come down to your pub is going to open up for a Namibia game necessarily unless of course they are playing the All Blacks. But it is up to each individual licensed premises to work that out—what it is going to open for and what it will not. In Mount Maunganui in Tauranga we have a very strong Brazilian and South American community—well there you have it—as well as the English and the Irish communities. You can see how that is going to manifest.But I have to say that this piece of legislation which is to adjust and put an amendment into the current legislation leaves a dirty stain on the legislation that we have got. It is going to leave a blight. It is going to add the Rugby World Cup 2015 as an amendment into this legislation. I feel a little bit uncomfortable moving forward from here and in future opening up this section and saying: “Why are we referring to 2015?”. Of course when it gets to 2017 and 2018 it is just going to look ridiculous which is again why I am asking the Minister of Justice Amy Adams to look into this. I have to say that Amy Adams has been fantastic too. She has been very very accommodating and very open and very supportive of ideas and getting everybody involved. So I would ask her to look into this and actually resolve this problem so we can get on because guess what? Next year we have got the Olympic Games and the year after that we have got the Football World Cup again.I would just like to give you some evidence and this is not anecdotal because it is absolutely from me. I have been involved in putting together special licence applications for some quite large events. In fact one of the events I put together was for 17000 people. It is a very onerous task on the licensee to actually put a special licence application together. That application was around about 35 pages of what we would and what we would not do to ensure harm from the consumption of alcohol was minimised. Working with your local authorities and the police is absolutely vital to ensure you get that open dialogue to ensure that things are actually going to be adhered to.On a smaller scale when you are talking about a special licence—and we have been working with licensees in Rotorua and the frustrations that they have been having with getting their special licences through—there is an expectation that they can put in just nine pages of paperwork and then they are going to get a special licence. It is up to the licensee to prove what they are going to do to minimise harm and mitigate noise and any other potential problems that may arise from that licensed premises during that special licence event. Nine pages is not enough. Look I have put a small application together and it might be as many as 15 pages to make sure that you have ticked the boxes to get things right. So I would have to say that the onus is on the licensees.I have actually helped to put together a schedule that is forming—goodness me I will just find the part that it actually is. It is to be added to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act and it is section 45E inserted by clause 3 which is to do with the conditions. There are three conditions that we believe will actually help mitigate problems associated with and arising from those licensed premises and they are around noise.What we are suggesting is that closing off your outside courtyards or your smoking areas of a licensed premises within the confines of the time of day that it is going to be operating is not unfair or unreasonable. I think that is actually a good condition which I would think that people communities and licensees would actually think is fair and reasonable. The second thing is that if anybody has lived in a city or a near a licensed premises they will know that the absolutely shocking noise that some outlets make when they tip their rubbish out—bottles and cans going into other bottles and cans—can absolutely startle people. I have lived in Wellington a couple of times and goodness me I have been woken up at odd times of the morning. So we have actually put this into the legislation to ensure that people get a good night’s sleep in their area. I think that is another point that needs to be very heavily considered. The third is of course quite simply to make sure that amplified music outside your premises is switched off.Those are the three conditions. Over and above that a noise mitigation plan needs to be submitted by the licensee. Other steps that they can take include getting customers away from their premises and getting them to their premises quickly quietly and with no fuss and that can be done with signage a coordinated taxi removal plan or making sure that your staff and security are actually outside at the front to make sure that people’s voices are kept down nice and low. These are the sorts of things that licensees can actually come out and take part in making sure that they do not become a nuisance within their community because that is not what this is designed for. This is a dog’s breakfast. This is a tiny little wee band-aid on a bigger problem that we would like to see resolved. Thank you.