SpeechJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East): I'm not sure that the previous member Brooke van Velden has actually read the bill—but I'll get to that in a moment. I appreciate the opportunity to take a call on this bill tonight: Chlöe Swarbrick's Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Harm Minimisation) Amendment Bill.Members in this House will I'm sure know by now that I tend to vote conservative on issues like this. I voted conservative on the euthanasia. I voted conservative on abortion primarily because my mother was offered to abort me in in 1975—she obviously didn't go through it! But it's very personal. Alcohol is also an area that it's very personal for a lot of people. So it's absolutely right that this should be a conscience vote. I'd like to acknowledge that process around conscience votes. I think it's a really important part of our democracy.There are a couple of aspects to this bill. The first part is around abolishing appeals on local alcohol policies in order to provide proper local control over alcohol regulation. I'm the member of Parliament for Hamilton East. Hamilton City Council met with Chlöe Swarbrick and they unanimously voted to support her bill. That's quite a rare thing to be honest in terms of Hamilton City Council because they know that they need an aspect of control to be able to listen to and protect their communities.Now the previous member from the ACT Party spoke about natural justice. The reality is that there is still a right to a judicial review if the process is flawed. In the same way that anyone has the right for a judicial review on anything council does—any by-laws. So that argument is not very well-thought-out unfortunately. I'll get on to the second part soon.In terms of my personal view—in terms of Part 1 I wholeheartedly support the member on that. As I said I've certainly heard it from my community—the amount of harm that has been caused by alcohol outlets in the community particularly in lower socio-economic areas; you know the amount of outlets is really not supporting those communities well. Councils are spending millions of dollars fighting supermarkets on this. Auckland Council has spent well into the millions trying to fight supermarkets simply because the council don't want the outlets but big business does. At times big business I think needs to have a look at itself—and in this area I think it is an area that they particularly need to do that. It's fairly obvious the harm that alcohol causes in our community. I feel like I don't even need to really give examples because we all know that.Now the argument: people will say Well look it's personal responsibility. It's personal choice. People just need to learn to manage their alcohol." The reality is that a lot of people can't manage their alcohol—and that's just the reality of it. They do need the support. They do need the option actually taken away from them.I acknowledge that the members opposite are voting as a bloc. I am disappointed with that—I am disappointed. Look every member needs to make up their own mind in this House and it is disappointing to me when a party does decide to vote as a bloc on a conscience issue. I personally don't agree with that but obviously each party can do what they want to do.So the first part of the bill I absolutely support the member; the second part I'm not as strong as the member is on this. I'm a patron of a football club: Melville United Football Club. There you go I've just put Melville on Hansard! It's a fantastic football club; came fifth in the national league last year. Look clubs do need finances. That's the reality of it. Clubs are very dependent on grant funding. However I do acknowledge that grant funding and alcohol does seem to be waning. When you look at our club we regularly apply for funding with the likes of pokies we apply for funding from the TAB; we don't apply for funding from alcohol or very small amounts of funding. So I mean look I could be wrong and I stand to be corrected by this in the House but I do sense that alcohol funding is very much dying away.However I don't really support the member on Part 2 but I will support this bill because I think it needs to go to the select committee where they can work through it. So I commend the member and commend the bill. Thank you."