Robson Matt: General Debate 
Robson Matt: General Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:21851] 
Hon MATT ROBSON (Deputy Leader—Progressive) 
: 
 All members of Parliament will have seen the recent survey of public opinion showing that 60 percent of young adults aged between 18 and 24 support the raising of the legal alcohol purchasing age to 20. It is not just a strong majority among young adults who want to raise the legal alcohol purchasing age—the age at which people can walk into their licensed corner dairy and buy alcohol. Strong majorities in every age group and in every region in New Zealand are in favour of action on youth binge drinking. The overwhelming message to us in this House of Representatives is that we must show leadership in order to turn the tide against the harm being caused by the misuse of alcohol by too many young teenagers and children. 
My Sale of Liquor (Youth Alcohol Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill is before the Law and Order Committee. Submissions will close on 12 August. The bill tackles three issues that must be addressed as part of a much broader culture-change project. It tackles broadcast TV alcohol advertising the rules we have in order to stem the supply of liquor to minors and the minimum legal purchasing age. This is a public health issue a youth mental health issue a family policy issue and a public safety issue and New Zealanders have the absolute right to demand that their Parliament act. The question every member of Parliament has to answer is this: if many 17-year-olds easily accessed alcohol from their 20-year-old friends before 1999 did the 1999 law change make it easier for 15-year-olds to access alcohol from their 18-year-old mates? The opinion of public health professionals many front-line police and welfare workers and the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders is that the answer to that question is yes. 
One of the main effects of the 1999 law change was to make access to alcohol easier for very young teenagers. People are demanding that their Parliament fix the policy error that Parliament itself made in 1999. The leader of the National Party Don Brash; the leader of United Future Peter Dunne; and the leader of ACT Rodney Hide have opposed letting the public have a say on this vital public health issue. Don Brash Peter Dunne and almost every ACT MP voted against the bill even going to the select committee. If they had had their way the people would not even have had the opportunity to talk directly to their employees the members of Parliament. 
I want Mr Dunne the leader of the so-called family friendly party to tell all of us why he does not think that the people of Ohariu-Belmont should be listened to on as vital an issue to real families as this. The Progressive Party will be holding a public meeting in Ohariu-Belmont on this issue because we would like to hear what people in that electorate think. We will send the results to Peter Dunne. In fact we will even ask him to come although given that United Future staunchly opposed the Progressive Party’s pro-family 4 weeks’ annual leave law change I am not holding my breath that the results will have any effect on him. 
The people of New Zealand have a right to hear from the National leader Don Brash as to why he opposes stemming the harm caused by alcohol to children. Don Brash gave the vital casting vote to liberalise prostitution law a while back. The Progressive Party disagrees with him on that but we accept that he held a principled view on a complex matter even if it was a different point of view from our own. But having given the casting vote in favour of short-term commercial sexual relationships he went on to oppose civil union legislation that was designed to support loving longer-term relationships. 
For the majority of New Zealanders Don Brash’s contradictory positions will make little sense. Now we know his stance on the alcohol purchasing age and it confirms our worst fears. For the third time in a row Don Brash is showing himself to be totally out of touch with the aspirations of the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders. Progressive Party candidates in this year’s election campaign will highlight Dr Brash’s position on the drinking age issue at every public opportunity we get. We want to know what his great alternative strategy to turn the tide against binge-drinking is. He must be hiding it up his sleeve but he should share it with us. We want to hear it the select committee wants to hear it and the people want to hear it. 
I want briefly to comment on so-called social liberals like those who inhabit the majority of the ACT caucus. Not only do the majority of ACT members oppose action on binge drinking but ACT’s entire caucus voted last week against the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) which was put forward by the Hon Jim Anderton. Social liberals apparently believe that 14-year-olds have some hitherto unknown God-given and constitutionally enshrined right to swallow benzylpiperazine party pills by the dozen. Next the social liberals will be telling us that it is constitutionally wrong to deny 14-year-olds the right to drive motorbikes at 120 kilometres an hour. 
This bill on the drinking age the advertising of alcohol and the supply of alcohol to minors in New Zealand is an issue that all New Zealanders are concerned about. There are many opinions on this issue but the opinions that I suggest members of Parliament should listen to in the first instance are those of the experts in the various fields and certainly not last those of the community itself. The Law and Order Committee will be the place that the experts and the community can be heard.