Turner Judy: Sale of Liquor (Objections to Applications) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Turner Judy: Sale of Liquor (Objections to Applications) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of United Future to speak in support of the first reading of the Sale of Liquor (Objections to Applications) Amendment Bill and I congratulate the Hon George Hawkins on putting this bill forward. 
I want to relate to the House a story that this bill may have been the solution to had it been around. A couple of years ago an appointment was made at my office in Whakatane by some concerned citizens. The suburb in which they lived had the traditional corner dairy. I myself had lived in that suburb at some stage over the 30 years I have been in Whakatane and I had been down to that dairy. Over the years it changed hands many times. At one stage one of the owners divided the wee shop in half reduced the grocery stock and put in a takeaway bar. So now we had two opportunities for business within that one little corner dairy. 
At this point in time the shop was changing hands again. An Auckland businessman was coming into town and he wanted to get rid of the takeaway bar and put in a liquor outlet next to the grocery outlet. The neighbours were outraged—and for very good reason. First of all I noted that the police completely agreed with them. In this neighbourhood within walking distance of each other there were already five liquor outlets but all the others were contained in a strip of shops that was easily patrolled by the police. This shop was at the other end of the walking distance and therefore was going to be more difficult for them to keep an eye on. So the police were against it. The neighbours were very against it for very good reasons. Directly across the road was a playcentre and in walking distance there was a large primary school and an even larger intermediate school. Within walking distance again was a residential men’s drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre and so the story goes on. 
As we set forth to try to object to this application for a liquor licence we all discovered that the only thing we could do was to discredit the applicant. Unfortunately—or fortunately for him—he was an upstanding citizen and nothing could be pinned on him. Therefore we were literally powerless to do anything about it and it was obvious that the licence would be approved. At that point it made me realise the little say that local people have on some extremely important issues facing them that impact on the quality of life that they enjoy. 
I was interested to hear the Hon George Hawkins talk about the fact that there is consideration at central government level for a future bill to reconsider the powers we give to local government in determining how many liquor outlets an area can have. I think that that is an extremely good idea. I have some questions around some of the provisions in the Hon George Hawkins’ bill but I am sure it is the job of the select committee to sort that out. The most important thing is that it is the only thing on offer right now; it is the only strategy before this House that attempts to make some dent in the binge culture that unfortunately characterises New Zealand. 
United Future is very keen to see this bill taken to a select committee. I imagine that by the third reading many parties may have allowed their members to vote according to their conscience. We have not even made a decision about that other than that we agree completely that the bill should proceed to a select committee and that discussions should be held. 
One of the things I also like about this bill is the fact that it talks about something that is very important and dear to the heart of United Future in terms of the principles we operate under. We operate under the principle that local communities should be making a lot more decisions for themselves than they are often currently able to make. On this particular issue there is huge support for local people determining whether they have enough liquor outlets. We could do a lot of things around the number of gambling opportunities that a community has to offer. A whole lot of areas need to be relooked at here in Parliament and we need to devolve the say on those things to local communities so that they have much more direct control. United Future is very happy to support this legislation and we also congratulate its sponsor.