O'Rourke Denis: Sale and Supply of Alcohol Bill Local Government (Alcohol Reform) Amendment Bill Summary Offences (Alcohol Reform) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
O'Rourke Denis: Sale and Supply of Alcohol Bill Local Government (Alcohol Reform) Amendment Bill Summary Offences (Alcohol Reform) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Sitting date: 11 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7358. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First) 
: 
 It is rather sad that New Zealand First cannot support all three bills from the Alcohol Reform Bill that we now have before us. We will be able to support the Local Government (Alcohol Reform) Amendment Bill and the Summary Offences (Alcohol Reform) Amendment Bill but we will not be able to support the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Bill which forms the main part of the alcohol reforms. The expectations of the public that these reforms would make a difference were very high. Those expectations have not been met by this legislation. One expectation was that the public’s majority view of the needed reforms would be delivered and that expectation is not being met either. The result is that this Government’s attempt at the reforms needed around alcohol is a failure. 
What we can expect is that some of the worst behaviour around alcohol abuse will carry on unabated this Christmas and New Year period. What we can expect is that the drinking culture amongst the young will get worse and not better. What we can expect is that the rate of harm to young drinkers in particular will accelerate and not improve because this Government has made it clear to them that all is well and that they should carry on just as they are. That is not what the public of New Zealand wants. What we can also expect is that the big commercial interests in alcohol will be feeling very well satisfied with the legislation as it now is because they are well and truly off the hook. The truth about this legislation is that it is an opportunity lost. It is an opportunity lost to send a message about the awful drinking culture especially amongst the young in this country. It is an opportunity lost to introduce some real controls around the most dangerous forms of alcohol products. It is even an opportunity lost to warn people on labels on alcohol about the real dangers of it especially with regard to pregnant women. 
There are some good things in the three bills though but not nearly enough to save the legislation from being a failed and weak attempt at reform. One of the areas where some progress is made is in the better empowerment of local authorities to make by-laws and to establish local alcohol policies. The provisions for local alcohol policies are welcome. Local alcohol policies have a capacity to make a large contribution to alcohol control in New Zealand because they will reflect local issues and local attitudes. However these should be mandatory in the legislation and not just discretionary and this shows again the weakness of the Government’s proposed legislation. There are some better controls around supermarkets dairies and grocery stores and those are also welcome to clarify the law but they too have been weakened when more restriction was indicated. 
But there are really two great blunders in this attempt at alcohol reform. The first of course is the failure to return the age for purchasing alcohol to 20 years. Only New Zealand First voted as a party on that and we voted to return it to 20 years. It was clearly what the vast majority of New Zealanders wanted. Increasing the purchase age would have made alcohol harder for young people to get. It would have meant less consumption by that age group. It would have given them a good signal that they need to change but that opportunity has been lost. 
The second failure is the failure to deal with the problem drinks the ready-to-drinks. These sweet easy-to-drink ready-to-drinks and similar drinks are well known to be very harmful because large quantities can be consumed especially of course by young people. Sugar levels are very high. They make the drinks very attractive. These drinks have at least 5 percent alcohol and in many cases a lot more. They can be treated by young people as though they were soft drinks and they lead too easily to intoxication. They are pushed and priced to sell by alcohol producers and sellers. They are condemned by the experts and the Law Commission as one of the drinks most potentially harmful to our young people. And what has this Government done? It said “Well maybe we’ll do something about it in the future.” and that is not good enough. Drinks of this kind with more than 5 percent alcohol should be covered by this legislation and should be prohibited. That would have been the most effective thing we could have done as part of these reforms. This Government has totally abdicated its responsibility to act effectively in this way. Instead it has sold out to big alcohol industry players that have twisted the Government’s arm. In so doing the Government has also sold our young people down the river—a river of bad alcohol and bad habits. 
The Government says that it has got assurances that the alcohol industry wants the chance to introduce its own measures to limit the production and the sale of these drinks but that does not explain at all why the Government should not be prohibiting and regulating these drinks right now. In fact providing a level playing field and requiring all industry operators to do the same would assist and not hinder industry cooperation. The industry in any event cannot be trusted to do the right thing without regulation. Otherwise it would have done it well before now. It is very uncertain what in the end the industry will do without the guidance of regulations. It is as we all know actually the Government’s job to propose legislation and regulation. It is not a matter for the alcohol industry to do so and there is no need for the Government to wait and see whether the alcohol industry will act appropriately. It should just pass the necessary measures right now to restrict or prohibit ready-to-drinks the biggest single alcohol problem in this country for young people. 
 So for those reasons New Zealand First cannot support such weak and watered-down legislation except for the few areas of advantage and I refer especially to local alcohol policies which can make a good contribution. New Zealand First has no choice but to vote against the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Bill. New Zealand deserves a lot better than this but this Government is not capable of it.