Davis Kelvin: Alcohol Advisory Council Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Davis Kelvin: Alcohol Advisory Council Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:652;Page:1889] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 I rise in support of the Alcohol Advisory Council Amendment Bill. As the previous speaker Dr Paul Hutchison told us in great detail this is a technical amendment bill that provides for a levy-setting regime that is fair up to date and simple to calculate and that removes historical anomalies. Previous speakers have touched on those issues so I will add a personal touch. 
I want to talk about some of the social issues surrounding the use of alcohol. I am sure all members have their own stories from their electorates and home towns that they can recount regarding the problems that arise from the consumption of alcohol and I will add my own tales. I need to add though that this bill is not designed to remedy the social ills that alcohol presents as members have touched on. Even so we need to take every opportunity we can to highlight the problems that alcohol causes and the harm associated with it. 
Only about a week after my candidacy was announced I received a letter from a gentleman in Rotorua who warned me of the perils of alcohol and particularly the harm it caused to Maori. Although I found the tone of the letter a little condescending towards Maori I could not help but agree with much of what the gentleman had to say. I assumed from his tone that he was not Maori himself and I winced at some of the Maori stereotypes he reinforced such as our not being genetically wired to handle alcohol. However I felt that there was an underlying concern about us as a people and about the fact that many of us as Maori find ourselves in trouble because of the frequency and volume of alcohol consumed. 
I grew up in Leonard Street Kawakawa which I can assure members was not a neck of the woods that was affected by skyrocketing real estate prices a few years back. In fact I doubt whether property values have moved much at all in that particular part of town. Leonard Street is a cul-de-sac that one can get to only by driving down Whiteman Road. I doubt whether there is a road in New Zealand less aptly named because it is a road full of brown faces. Let me tell the House now that those people are some of the greatest I know. Even though my family moved out of Leonard Street when I was aged 13 and moved a full mile and a half to the other side of town the friendships I made with kids on that street endure to this day. 
But some of my earliest memories are of some of the folk in that street regularly having parties that seemed to last all weekend. None of us living in that street had money but there always seemed to be money for alcohol. I do not know what was sacrificed so that the weekly party could be had but I have memories of guitars and singing cars ripping up and down the street and often more people sitting on the boot bonnet or roof of the car than there were people on the inside being driven. There were 14 families living on that street and close to 100 kids excluding the mokos the whangai the nieces the nephews and the hangers-on. Of those 100 kids only three to my knowledge gained a university degree. Some went on to the police or owned businesses but many succumbed to the system and did not achieve their potential. I cannot help but wonder about the part that alcohol had to play in that underachievement given that alcohol and parties seemed to have a higher priority than education. 
To change tack slightly I recall a wananga held at my marae in Karetu about 10 years ago where for part of the time we spoke about some of our elders who had passed on and what sort of people they were. I was quite astounded that most of our men were described in two ways: firstly they could swear and secondly they could drink. At the time we laughed because the stories were anecdotes and reminiscences of people we loved but it dawned on me that the men we held up as role models and examples in our community were actually hardened drinkers—it was OK to drink. 
I wonder how our women felt back in those days about having their men come home from work drunk most nights. When the freezing works opened in Moerewa and most men went there to work many of them rode bicycles to and from work. This was a journey of some 14 or 15 kilometres. On many occasions they would stop at the Star Hotel in Kawakawa on their way back from work and buy a keg—would members believe—and carry it home on their bicycles drinking as they went. There is a hill and a flat about 4 kilometres from home that carry the beautiful name of Waitemaringi. This hill is where these elders would stop to drink the last of their keg before getting home. Unfortunately the quantities of alcohol consumed on the way would necessitate a comfort stop. Such was the regularity of this that the name Waitemaringi is basically lost and this hill and flat are now known as Mimi Hill and Mimi Flat respectively. Not only can we conclude that alcohol is partly responsible for the loss of some of my hapu’s beautiful traditional place names and therefore another part of our culture but also that my elders set a poor example for our youth not by drinking and driving but rather by drinking and cycling. 
This bill arose as a result of a review of the Alcohol Advisory Council Act 1976 conducted by the Ministry of Health in 2004. Problems were found in the way levies were calculated and apportioned. The Alcohol Advisory Council—or ALAC as it is known—received a total levy amount of $12.4 million in the 2007-08 financial year which is small in comparison with the $795 million collected as excise payable on alcohol manufactured in New Zealand and excise-equivalent duty payable on alcohol imported into New Zealand in the year ended June 2008. Given the amount of damage that alcohol causes I would like to put in a plug for ALAC to receive a greater share so that it is better able to fulfil its functions which include research dissemination of information educational programmes and innovative treatment programmes. 
Under the system proposed by the bill the dollar amount per litre of beverage for the ALAC levy can be set for each alcoholic beverage according to its deemed alcohol content or average alcohol content. This means that alcoholic beverages with a higher volume of alcohol would contribute a higher portion of the levy. The new system will not affect the total sum collected for the levy and the effect on the price to consumers will not be significant—approximately 2c less for a 750 ml bottle of spirits and a difference of less than 1c for a bottle of wine a six-pack of beer or a four-pack of ready-to-drink beverages. 
I welcome the changes that attempt to future-proof against new types of beverages that will most likely hit the market over the coming years. When growing up in the 1970s I thought there were four classes of alcohol as are described in the bill but I thought they were Lion Red DB wine in a cask and top shelf. I did not really understand at the time that top shelf was not actually a product brand. I remember the first time I sneaked a sip of whisky from a bottle and understood instantly why our people call alcohol wai piro—putrid water. I could not stand the taste then and I cannot stand the taste now. Seeing the range of beverages available and on sale these days I can only imagine the types of firewater that will be available in the future with the different mixes of alcohol—spirits and wines—all tasting like children’s cordial. Therefore it is great that the levy system has been future-proofed to cater for these possibilities. This future-proofing was the first of the improvements to the Act to address the four problems that needed rectifying. 
Other speakers have covered most of the technical aspects but before I wind up I take the time to return our attention to the need for ALAC to receive greater funding in order to support its aims. As principal of Kaitaia Intermediate School it broke my heart to hear from members of the Kaitaia police and the local safer community group the stories of some pupils’ drinking excesses on Friday nights. It is not uncommon for the police or that community group in the course of their patrols to come across highly intoxicated—and in some instances comatose—kids. I can tell the House that as the father of a 13-year-old girl the stories of how some of these kids—young girls mainly—acquired some of their hard liquor absolutely turned my stomach. 
I do not want to leave anyone in any doubt as to the need for greater funding for ALAC so that there can be greater access for our youth to educational programmes on the safe consumption of alcohol. My personal belief is that there is not really a safe level of alcohol consumption for youth. However the reality is that youth drinking is a fact of life and is often condoned by parents. So if youth drinking is going to happen our youth need access to information they can relate to in the hope they can make safe decisions when consuming alcohol. As adults we need to step up and set an example to our youth who are really only mimicking our behaviour.