Dalziel Lianne: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dalziel Lianne: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 06 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7297. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Labour—Christchurch East) 
: 
I am grateful that the Minister in the chair the Acting Minister of Justice decided to take a call and to repeat the advice that the Minister of Justice shared with the Committee when we debated the particular provisions under Part 3. 
Of course we met with the Minister and discussed the advice that she had received on the Supplementary Order Papers. She reluctantly and finally agreed to meet with us to discuss the amendments that we wanted to bring before the Committee. There was not a discussion. My colleague was with me and it was not a discussion; it was simply notification of the advice that she had been given by her officials. The whole point of this debate is to actually challenge some of the official advice. 
I want to present the Minister with some alternative advice and it is advice that comes from the heart of our health sector. I think that this is a health issue actually and that is why I was so surprised at the contribution from Dr Paul Hutchison. I could not believe that I was listening to a doctor standing in this Chamber and arguing the industry line. It was not just the industry line. I think that people think the reason we are under so much pressure to vote a particular way on this legislation is because of industry pressure and industry interests—meaning the alcohol industry or the hospitality industry. Can I just say it is also the advertising industry it is the sponsorship industry it is all the community groups that are dependent on sponsorship but most important it is the people who get the advertising dollars. It is the media. They will not want to see any of their revenues affected by our taking effective measures in this House. 
That is why I have said on so many occasions that if we truly are to address alcohol issues in Parliament and to make the contribution that only we can make recognising that it is a partnership with community and with family and with individuals—because it is individual responsibility family responsibility community responsibility—the Government has a really important role in terms of the legal framework for the sale of what is a drug. I do not think people quite understand because we accept that alcohol is a socially acceptable drug for us all to share in a convivial environment. In fact I think all of us who have been on FebFast recognise how ubiquitous alcohol is. At every occasion that we go to we are often invited more than once to partake of a drink. At various functions in this place often alcohol is served. I think we have to think seriously about the nature of the impact that it has beyond here. 
All of the district health boards in the South Island have banded together and they have adopted an evidence-based position statement on alcohol. It is absolutely comprehensive. Every single one of the amendments to these parts of the bill that we are debating—every single one of them—is included in this position statement. I am going to table it in the House. I do want the Minister and the members of Parliament who say they are waiting for evidence to actually read it very very carefully. It tells us to raise alcohol prices. It talks about increasing levels of excise tax on alcohol adjusting excise tax so that alcohol products are taxed directly on the level of ethanol—which is catered for in the point-of-sale health levy proposal by my colleague Maryan Street—and setting a minimum retail price for alcohol per alcohol unit. I mean I heard the Minister of Justice saying in this Chamber when we debated Part 3 that in fact the minimum retail price for alcohol was only going to benefit the hospitality industry. Well it will not benefit the hospitality industry. It attacks only the off-licences that sell dirt cheap alcohol. That is what minimum pricing is all about. 
When we turn to my colleague’s Supplementary Order Paper 40 about changing the blood-alcohol content that will save more lives than just about any other measure that we are talking about. The evidence is all there in the  
Background Paper of Supporting Evidence to the South Island District Health Boards’ Position Statement on Alcohol 
. The evidence is there. We do not need to wait for more evidence to come. [ 
Bell rung 
] Mr Chairman?