Robertson Grant: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Robertson Grant: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 30 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:5020. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I also grew up in the same city as Michael Woodhouse although he was a little older than me— 
Andrew Little 
: When did you buy your first beer? 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: Well I bought my first beer Mr Little from a pub in Dunedin. I probably should not name it but I will. It was called the Waterloo Hotel in South Dunedin and I was a bit younger than Mr Woodhouse when I purchased that. At that point in life the purchase age was 20 as it was I think for Mr Little when he was probably growing up then and I was significantly younger than 20 when I was purchasing alcohol from that pub. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: What? You broke the law? 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: I have privilege Tau so I can say that in here. But the point that I am making is that regardless of whatever the age is we are not actually going to be able to address the problems that arise from alcohol consumption with a focus on just the age. 
Binge drinking in New Zealand is a significant problem. I spent a period of time as the Labour Party’s health spokesperson last year and around the country I met many people who have to deal with the downstream effects of alcohol and of binge drinking. It is an enormously serious health issue and social issue for this country to face up to. And that is why I think that when we come to the other far more significant parts of this bill the Alcohol Reform Bill where we focus on the price of alcohol when we talk about the availability and accessibility of it through supermarkets and when we talk about advertising and sponsorship they will be the issues that we should be debating in depth in the detail and with the passion that we seem to be debating today the purchasing age because they are the issues that will make—all the evidence tells us—the biggest difference in terms of the way that people treat alcohol and in the way that people use alcohol in the future. 
It is not to say that the age has no impact whatsoever but I do not believe that by moving it from 18 back to 20 we will make the difference that members of this House seem to think. Those differences will be made by families and parents actually having sensible conversations at a younger age with their children about alcohol. That kind of difference will be made when we are honest about the effects of alcohol when we do not glorify it through the advertising and sponsorship arrangements that we have now and when we do have a serious conversation about minimum pricing rather than politicising the issue or trying to make it into some kind of nanny State taxation-type issue by saying that this is how we will make the biggest difference. 
When I talk to somebody like Dr Geoffrey Robinson who runs the detox unit at Kenepuru Hospital—who in fairness would support increasing the purchase age I am sure—what he also says though is that the most significant change in the 30 years that he has worked there is the availability of alcohol through supermarkets. That is the biggest change—the availability of cheap low-priced loss-leading alcohol sales in supermarkets. That is where I believe the focus should be. I think we should back young people in New Zealand to be able to take the decisions they take with the right information around them. I believe that we should keep the age of purchase at 18. It is a decision that we can support our young people in rather than sitting here in Parliament dictating to them in a way that—I am not allowed to use a word but if I were to vote to see this age raised given my experience at the Waterloo Hotel I would be that word and that would be a hypocrite. I am not prepared to be that and I will be supporting retaining the purchase age at 18.