Eckhoff Gerrard: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:608;Page:5430] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT NZ) 
: 
 I listened with some incredulity to the comments from not just Mr Copeland but other members who have spoken in this debate—and I must say from the United Party—who just do not seem to understand what this bill is all about. We have debated this issue for quite some time and we are still in this Chamber arguing the toss about whether it is a “KGB” or whether it is a bottle with something else that has 23 percent 10 percent or 5 percent. The real issue is about kids getting fractured and getting drunk during parties. That is the issue. I tell Mr Copeland that some outlets are selling about 30 pallets a week of that product. He should not shake his head. I have been talking to a member of that industry who has been in the business for 30-odd years and he tells me that that is exactly what is happening. It is those that are the problem—not the inference that that member is trying to make about a product that he cannot even produce. 
This bill is about tax gathering because one would not include fortified wines and sherries otherwise. The people who drink fortified wines and sherries are elder constituents of members. They are older people. They are the superannuitants who will go along to buy their litre of sherry only to find that tomorrow morning the next day or the day after it has gone from $15 to $30. I ask Steve Chadwick why the Government wants to whack the superannuitants. Why does the Minister in the chair—what was his name that old chap who has been in the chair for so many years: Jim Anderton—want to hit superannuitants? 
I make this point also: is it not Jim Anderton who is the Minister for Industry and Regional Development? He has effectively killed the sherry industry in this country. Nobody will pay the sort of tax level that he has imposed. People will just switch away from that on to something else. The industry and regional development ministry has just killed the sherry industry in this country over the last few hours. 
Ron Mark 
: It’s the teenagers’ fault. 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: Gracious me! It is quite extraordinary that we are here at almost a quarter to three in the morning discussing a bill of this nature and we are totally missing the target. That has been said so many times before during the course of this debate but the Minister seems unable to grasp the point. He would not hit a barn door with a shotgun for goodness’ sake! The bill states that light spirits in particular are the drink of choice for many teenagers—not superannuitants—and young people. They are the target audience that the Minister is trying to have a crack at. OK target the very things that are the problem such as the alcopops—not sherries or the fortified wines. 
Some wines in this country are regarded as “overcooked”. That is the expression. They are too hot. There is too much alcohol content but actually they are very very nice wines. Can the Minister tell me why a wine that is bottled at 13.9 percent alcohol or thereabouts can escape the increased duty whereas wine at 14 percent and above gets clobbered? What is the reason when the difference is only a fraction of a percentage point or two? What is it in real terms? 
The Minister sits there but cannot answer. I have been to two members of the Labour Party tonight and told them the Government has totally missed its target. They agreed that it had but said: “We’re going to get some anyway.” This is an appalling state of affairs. It brings Parliament into disrepute. It is seen as a laughing stock by the public. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars; burning electricity—