King Colin: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
King Colin: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 30 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:5008. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 It is great to see that this debate on the Alcohol Reform Bill is maturing that a lot of the heat is going out of things and that we are getting more to the norming and the performing stage of this debate. It is healthy that that occurs. I personally sat on the Justice and Electoral Committee only a couple of times and my position started off supporting a split age. I would just like to explain why I started off in that position. It was purely around the understanding that at the age of 18 youth at school could actually be seen as role models to younger ones at secondary school and could have a significant influence on those younger ones at college. So that is where I started from. I was looking at a split age: an off-licence purchase age of 20 and the on-licence purchase age remaining at 18. 
However the problem with drinking is a lot more complex than that. I have got to endorse the comments of those who have identified that. What really galvanised my thinking was the coroner’s report into four deaths that occurred within an industry that is close to my heart—that is the shearing industry. It was all around the behaviour of those who were taking the lead in the shearing industry. The older men were the ones who perpetuated the culture of heavy drinking. 
One particular case occurred in Southland. A young lad of 17 was at a function. He was given a hard time because of his hair length. There was no one there taking responsibility for that young fellow who was actually working in that environment. He jumped in a car drove off down the road intoxicated went off the road rolled the car into a ditch and drowned. If that is an argument for raising the drinking age then I think it is a knee-jerk reaction. 
Effectively the New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association has had to come out and actually start talking about changing the culture within the shearing industry because there is this old adage about working hard and playing hard. I mean you have got to remember that we have got youth there who are aged 15 16 17 18 and 19 and they are actually learning their skills. They are starting on a pathway that has proved very successful for many people. 
I have come to the conclusion that I will be supporting 18 years of age as a purchase age based on the principles that domestic violence drunken driving police time wasted managing violence outside licensed restaurants and nursing and doctoring time that is taken up managing the accidents and emergencies during the weekend are more representative of the overall problems that we face around alcohol. So whilst we are at this particular stage considering only the aspect of purchase age I want to speak on behalf of the enormous percentage of 18 and 19-year-olds who are acting responsibly. I would put out a challenge to the older people in New Zealand to step up— 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: You’re one of them Colin. 
COLIN KING 
: —that is right and I am very proud of that—and take responsibility for their behaviour because that is where the role models are and the examples are set. 
It is a fascinating time to be on one’s feet. This has been a very long and sort of complex debate—probably not aided by some of the comments coming out of the Law Commission which actually tended to simplify matters and just focus on the tobacco-type argument around preventing the consumption of alcohol which in itself would actually have a detrimental effect on other aspects of the alcohol industry like that of the production of wine in Marlborough where excise tax would actually really ruin it. 
Based on those arguments I do not see the evidence that people talk about as being consequential around the purchase age solving the problem. In actual fact I received a paper the other day from a South Island district health board—