Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 06 April 2016. Volume:712;Page:10256. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment BillFirst ReadingPAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): I move That the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. This very simple bill creates an exemption for RSAs from trading hour restrictions under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 and local alcohol policies where these may also apply. It does not seek to confer any additional rights to sell or supply alcohol beyond those that an RSA’s licence would usually provide for. It simply removes the costs of up to $500 for special licences at the 181 clubs that serve around 105000 RSA members nationwide along with their families and wider communities.This is a measure that is very deliberately focused solely on the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association and includes those RSA clubs that may be embedded in other clubs as is the case in this region with the Petone Club. I may hold liberal views on alcohol licensing but I am very much more comfortable with a half-day on Anzac Day prior to lunchtime being reserved as a day for national commemoration in sober and solemn observance than I am with restrictions on alcohol on other days. I am unapologetic that this bill does not apply more widely for instance to sports clubs which still retain their current ability to apply for a special licence if they have a legitimate reason for doing so. It is also intended to apply only on 25 April Anzac Day itself and not the Mondayised holiday.It is ridiculous that RSAs have to pay for expensive special licences to serve a harmless tipple with gunfire breakfasts. The tradition of the gunfire breakfast following the dawn ceremony has been an integral part of Anzac Day since at least the 1920s and the addition of a shot of liquor often rum to the coffee at that breakfast recalls the repast taken by the soldiers before battle. This is an important tradition and it should be preserved not persecuted.We all know that the RSAs are highly trusted often small and voluntary organisations that serve a very valuable role in our communities. They commemorate the military service and sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders over the past century. We owe so much to our veterans: our very lives and lifestyle and status as a free and democratic country in which it is the people who have the real power. So I am delighted that we have been able to progress this legislation today.I want to put on record my thanks to other parties for their cooperation on this sensible and timely bill. In particular can I thank Kris Faafoi Trevor Mallard and Chris Hipkins; James Shaw and David Clendon; Clayton Mitchell and Barbara Stewart; Peter Dunne Marama Fox and David Seymour for their agreement and advocacy within their own parties so that this bill could be passed through a slightly abbreviated process to help RSA clubs save costs this year rather than waiting for another 12 months.I also pay tribute to the architect of the 2012 legislation the Hon Judith Collins; the current Minister of Justice the Hon Amy Adams who has been an excellent sounding board and very generous in tasking her officials; the Leader of the House the Hon Gerry Brownlee; and the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs the Hon Craig Foss for their support. The chief whip—never forget the chief whip—Tim Macindoe has been very supportive along with Nick Bryant Anna Mitchell James Christmas Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Wood Tim Workman Logan Morton Joshua Whitford Beth McEwan and my colleagues Brett Hudson Simon O’Connor and Scott Simpson who have been particularly supportive of this bill.I would also like to note that this bill has been strongly supported by the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association. When it was drawn last year the RSA had expressed a hope that it would pass in advance of Anzac Day this year. The year 2016 is the centennial of the RSA so this bill makes a very welcome 100thbirthday present for one of our most valued institutions.I would like to acknowledge Bruce Johnston the president of the Karori RSA where I am proud to be a member along with Nancy McDonald and Rick Steven who ensure that I remember to submit my membership renewal each year. I would like to thank David Moger the chief executive and also Grant Marris the business development manager at the RSA as well as their entire team at their national office who have assisted.Finally I want to concede that there were some drafting errors with the original bill. It did not take into account that RSAs operate predominantly under club licences so I intend to table a Supplementary Order Paper which I have had some assistance with in preparing from the Parliamentary Counsel Office and the Ministry of Justice at the Committee stage to correct deficiencies in this bill. Apart from those small tweaks I think it is an otherwise necessary and practical measure and I commend it to the House.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): Can I congratulate the member Paul Foster-Bell on having his bill drawn from the ballot and can I thank all of the members on the Business Committee for agreeing to expedite this through as quickly as we can so that the bill can be passed into law before this year’s Anzac Day.Can I acknowledge the growing significance of Anzac Day in New Zealand—and I do believe that it is growing in significance for New Zealanders—and the enormous role that RSAs play up and down the country. Many of those RSAs are now quite small organisations and they struggle to get together the money—up to $500—to get a special licence in order to do what they have always done on Anzac Day. This was never intended by the Parliament when these laws were changed in the first place.This bill simply corrects an anomaly. It removes a huge burden off the shoulders of RSAs which never should have been imposed with it in the first place and allows them to continue to do what has become an important part of New Zealand tradition in commemorating Anzac Day in the way that we currently do.I want to also acknowledge the importance of getting the wording around this right so that all of those RSAs that are now part of another organisation or cohabitate with another organisation are also covered by this bill. I think of the RSA in Upper Hutt which is now part of the Upper Hutt “cossie club” or sits within the Upper Hutt “cossie club”. I think of the Naenae RSA which is part of the Park Avenue Bowling Club. Those organisations should also be covered by this. As a result of Supplementary Order Paper 168 which Paul Foster-Bell will move in the Committee stage they will be covered by this as well as those stand-alone RSAs such as the Taitā RSA where I am proud to be a member because I think that all RSAs should be able to commemorate Anzac Day in the way that they always have.We have agreed to a truncated process for this bill so that it can be passed through the House as quickly as possible. In that spirit I will end my contribution there and simply commend the bill to the House.KEVIN HAGUE (Green): I think it is probably true that all parties in the House will be supporting this bill today—certainly that is what I hope to be the case. But I do want to in this first reading contribution express some concerns about process.I well remember the debates in this House on the 2012 Sale and Supply of Alcohol Bill. In particular I want to recall the testy mood of some of those debates and what happens when a complex piece of legislation is going through the House with a Government that is not very interested in actually talking with some of the experts in the community and across party lines with some of the Opposition parties. As a result of that the Government in various forms has had to come back to this House on a number of occasions with fix-it-up legislation. And that is a situation that could have been avoided.So the question that springs to mind—and should spring to the mind for the public—is: although this is indeed a weakness of the legislation that Paul Foster-Bell’s bill is dealing with why was this not dealt with in 2012 or in any of the intervening 4 years? So that is the first concern about process. It is a downside of rushed legislation or legislation that occurs with inadequate consultation across the House.I guess the second point that I want to raise is: when this shortcoming of the bill—or the Act as it was by that stage—came to light why did the Government not step in to remedy that shortcoming? Why was it made a question for a member’s bill instead? This is a classic situation surely for the Government to introduce its own bill because the Government gets to control the process of a bill through the House. It is the Government that is in a position to determine the place of legislation on the Order Paper and how quickly it can move it through all of its stages in the House.So it would have been appropriate for a Government bill to remedy this problem. But instead what we see is the way that the Government has used members’ days and the members’ ballot. It has tended to use that members’ ballot in a way that enables Government members to put in bills that ought to be Government bills and are largely non-controversial pieces of legislation that are intended simply to reduce the odds of an Opposition member’s bill being drawn from that ballot. Although I totally understand that that is within the rules of the House it is not the spirit in which members’ days should proceed. Myself I have two important bills: one that is about protecting endangered native species and another that is about overhauling New Zealand’s antiquated and obsolete adoption law. The chances that those bills have of being drawn are diluted by the Government’s choice of using members’ day to advance effectively bills that it ought to be advancing itself.The third point is the truncated process that both speakers so far have referred to and that on this occasion we are forced to agree to—because if we do not agree to that truncated process this bill cannot take effect before Anzac Day this year. Both of the most recent examples of fix-up legislation to the Act have featured both of these characteristics: a member’s bill when it should be a Government bill; and a truncated or amended process when actually better planning could have seen a bill proceed in the proper way.CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): I am rising on behalf of New Zealand First in support of Paul Foster-Bell’s bill—Supplementary Order Paper 168 is coming up in the next reading—the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill. God I am sure we could shorten that a little bit but that will come up in the Committee stage as well. Goodness me! That was about 1 minute just to get through the title.It does come as no surprise to us that we are back here having this discussion which we said would happen in just August of last year. It is like “déjà voodoo” or a glitch in the matrix. There is a bit of a glitch because we are coming back to something that we said would need to be readdressed in this House. This is about the sale and supply of alcohol. The architect as it was so eloquently pointed out by Paul Foster-Bell was of course Miss Judith Collins the honourable Minister there. It does have some serious flaws in it that we need to readdress and we would be certainly suggesting strongly that this Government bring the entire bill back so that we can have a look at some of these unintended consequences that have been pointed out.This bill the sale and supply of alcohol bill is starting to resemble more of a Monty Python skit or potentially a little wee skit from The Muppet Show where Kermit the Frog would sing about “Lydia oh Lydia the tattooed lady” because there is so much legislation being put now into this legislation. There are a number of blotch marks that for years to come we will have to go back through and refer to with regard to the sale and supply of alcohol. We are talking about the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2015 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill and of course now we are talking about the Anzac Day bill.We do support the common-sense approach to let the Anzac supporters to let our RSA members to let those people who do support and hold and cherish the values of those returned service people have the simple act of having a drink and a celebration. It is a celebration of the life that they have given up. It is a celebration of the lives that they fought for for us to all enjoy and absolutely this is one of those moments in time when you could not have anybody other than somebody who is on a different planet think that this is not a special occasion.However the current legislation does allow some interpretation to go a little bit askew. For some reason we have had in the past some amendments put into these agreements these licensing agreements for special licences that do not allow for example pool tables to be used at a special event or that the event must be ticketed for or the fact that you cannot have live music being played through because the purpose of the event is for a celebration of the Anzac commemoration or Anzac Day as it was.So this bill does address that. It goes even further to say that if there is in your local alcohol policy a one-way door policy it will be negated in this policy. That does make sense. It does also allow drinking to establish itself at 4 o’clock in the morning. The overarching liquor licence says that the standard hours of operation unless there is otherwise a good reason are 8 a.m. until 3 a.m. Many of those councils have opted out of that and they have actually shortened those hours even further but again rather than having an interpretation of a council or the police or the health department saying what is right this is exactly what New Zealand First is saying. It should come back to the House for a proper review to make sure that the rules that apply in one area under one council actually apply across New Zealand to give us some sort of continuity and some consistency. It takes away that ambiguity.We do acknowledge that there are 181 registered RSAs around New Zealand and that breaks down to some 104000-odd members. Anzac Day is a day of celebration as I have already outlined. My family and I will be attending those Anzac celebrations as we do and we certainly would like to see this bill speedily read through the House today so that come the 25th of this month Anzac Day can be celebrated and all Anzac Days forward from here without the sort of hassle and bureaucratic nonsense that has to be gone through in applying for a special licence which is what has been happening up until now. Thank you.DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Here is how one gives a short speech. I support the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill. I congratulate the member in charge of it Paul Foster-Bell. I comport with my colleagues who raised questions about why it is necessary to be in the House amending the legislation for the second time within a year so that normal community activities can be accommodated where a special licence has been inadequate to do so. Finally I believe that these truncated processes although I have supported them in the past are something that we in this House should be very cautious in our use of. Thank you.Bill read a first time.Second ReadingPAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): I move That the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill be now read a second time.Bill read a second time.In CommitteeClauses 1 to 4KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): I plan to make a very short speech in the Committee stage and I will not bother reading the bill name because that will take up too much time. Can I commend the member in the chair Paul Foster-Bell who has put forward this bill. I want to point to Supplementary Order Paper 168 and to new section 47A(2) which sets out in the legislation that RSAs that are licensed and registered with the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association will be able to be open between the hours of 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Anzac Day itself. It seems odd that we have to come to this Chamber to do that but it is in fact that we are correcting a piece of legislation and I acknowledge—Paul Foster-Bell: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I apologise to the member for interrupting. The point of order is that the clauses contained in bill all be taken as one question for the purposes of the Committee stage.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): You are seeking leave for that purpose?Paul Foster-Bell: Yes.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is not. Leave is sought that clauses 1 to 4 stand part and the question is that clauses 1 to 4 stand part. Kris Faafoi—as a continuing call with 4 minutes and 15 seconds to go.KRIS FAAFOI: I am glad; that will make the process even more efficient. There will be many presidents of RSAs around the country who will be happy that this piece of legislation will go through this Committee in the manner that it is today. It will ensure that they will get to have a beer if they want to enjoy a beer or a drink on the morning of Anzac Day and not have to go through the rigmarole of having to apply for an exemption or a special licence for that purpose. It will save RSAs around the country a fair bit of money especially if they are a smaller struggling RSA.I found myself in the good position of sharing a beer with one of my local RSA presidents last Friday who was one of the RSA presidents who called me and said it was my job to try to help sort this out. So I do acknowledge Roger Kingsford the president of the Porirua RSA and also acknowledge the president of the Titahi Bay RSA which is my local RSA John O’Hara who at Easter also told me of this issue. It is one of the smaller clubs that I spoke of and $265 within the jurisdiction of the Porirua City Council is a lot of money. So they will not have to face that financial burden in the future because of this.I would like to thank the member again. I acknowledge the process we have to go through to speed this through but I do think it is a good thing that we can have this law in place by this Anzac Day so we do not put extra pressures on our RSAs around the country.PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): I am putting forward Supplementary Order Paper 168 in my name which has been tabled and circulated. I am moving that it be adopted because the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill as originally drafted worked on the assumption that RSA clubs use general liquor licences. In subsequent conversations including conversations with the RSA and others it was made clear to me that there is a range of arrangements in place. Many actually operate under club licences. There are some who still operate under royal charters; there are a few remaining royal charters in existence. The Supplementary Order Paper does in fact deal with that particular detail.It also deals with some other small technical and drafting matters. There are a number of clubs—and members have alluded to this so far in the debate—that operate by subletting or are under the auspices of another club. An example locally in our region is the Petone Working Men’s Club which houses the Lower Hutt Memorial Returned and Services Association but there is a range of different arrangements in place including some that are within Cosmopolitan Clubs others in sports clubs such as bowling clubs and some even sublet commercial premises. So the Supplementary Order Paper does deal with that particular issue. I make no apology for seeking to retain the primacy of the RSA as the institution that preserves the memory of the sacrifices of New Zealanders at war rather than expanding it more widely to the bowling clubs the rugby clubs and the other service organisations which can continue to seek a special licence should they wish to commemorate Anzac Day with the service of alcohol.One complexity in our local licensing law is the issue of the local alcohol policy. Some localities have rolled out their local alcohol policy and they have put in place local default opening hours that supersede the national default. Other localities including here in Wellington have yet to implement their local alcohol plan. So this Supplementary Order Paper takes care of both situations. Whether or not they have yet rolled out a local alcohol plan the RSAs within a locality will be covered.Also there is the issue of the one-way door policy which my friend Clayton Mitchell brought up. It is absolutely clear to me that the legislation we have in place was designed to deal with early morning pub crawls and bar hopping. It is a very different situation from that where members of the RSA and their families and the wider community might want to come into the club rooms perhaps leave their coats go outside and lay a wreath take part in a solemn Dawn Service observance and then go back inside for the gunfire breakfast. We have a gunfire breakfast locally here in Wellington this year thanks to the work of the Hon Maggie Barry the Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage. It will actually take place inside the Arras Tunnel it might interest the member to know. So it will be very large and quite expensive to put on but it gives an all-weather option for those who are going to that big Dawn Service.But for those in small community RSAs such as my local RSA in Karori it is a practical measure that prevents door-hopping policies blocking what is a harmless activity in observing that gunfire breakfast. I think that Clayton Mitchell’s Supplementary Order Paper which deals with the name of the bill is actually a sensible one. In my Supplementary Order Paper there was also a streamlining of the name. I am agnostic as to which option is best but it is sensible to streamline the name to make it a bit less of a mouthful to say. Thank you.CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): I want to take just a quick call in the Committee stage of this new legislation. I have to say that Supplementary Order Paper 168 which came through last night was quite hot when it was first handed to me. None the less it does make some sense.Just getting back to the point I made in the first reading with regard to a Monty Python sketch or a scene out of The Muppet Show when we were talking about “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” sung by Kermit the Frog—this is exactly what we are talking about here in amending section 44 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to amend the “Permitted trading hours for premises without relevant local alcohol policy”. It says here: “In section 44(3) after ‘(Rugby World Cup 2015 extended trading hours)’ insert ‘and section 47A (Anzac Day trading hours for licensed RNZRSA clubs)’.” It goes on and does the same thing in section 45 amending the “Permitted trading hours for premises with relevant local alcohol policy”. It says: “In section 45(3) after ‘(Rugby World Cup 2015 extended trading hours)’insert ‘and section 47A (Anzac Day trading hours for licensed RNZRSA clubs)’.”And that to me is not what the intention of legislation is about—doing on the fly amendments and changes. That is an indictment. It is a blotch on the paper of our Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act. We would certainly urge the Government to readdress this issue about common-sense policy around the simple act of having a drink for an occasion.The police are getting no blame from New Zealand First for the stance that it takes because of course the legislation is open for interpretation. Where the police lay its decision making with regard to the issuing of a special licence is very risk averse. Understanding the situation of the New Zealand Police being so under-resourced as it currently is—as the Minister of Police will no doubt one day agree to and will actually service the police more adequately. It would certainly help that situation for the police to be able to resource special licensing conditions to make sure that order is kept within our communities.We do put forward Supplementary Order Paper 170. The simple fact of saying Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill—I can hardly get through it before I need to take another breath. It would certainly be better said by saying the “Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Anzac Day Extended Hours for RSAs) Amendment Bill”. So hopefully we can change that when we go to put it to the vote.We certainly will be supporting this bill all the way through to get some common sense into the art of having a beer and celebrating the people who have given their lives given their time and given their services to their country and to the values that they hold—principally the New Zealand way of life. Thank you.The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 168 in the name of Paul Foster-Bell to clause 1 be agreed to.Amendment agreed to.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): We move to Clayton Mitchell’s amendment to clause 1 as set out on Supplementary Order Paper 170. This is now out of order as it is inconsistent with a previous decision of the Committee.Clause 1 as amended agreed to.Clause 2 agreed to.Clause 3 agreed to.The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 168 in the name of Paul Foster-Bell to clause 4 be agreed to.Amendment agreed to.Clause 4 as amended agreed to.Bill reported with amendment.Report adopted.