Davis Kelvin: Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2015 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavis Kelvin: Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2015 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 26 August 2015. Volume:708;Page:6225. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Might I say from the outset that I will be supporting this bill. Despite all my concerns around the overuse of alcohol and the effects it may have on people I still believe that people do have the right to go and watch the All Blacks at a bar or wherever it may be. I support that.I would like just to touch on a few things that the previous speaker David Bennett raised such as the pride of pulling on the black jersey with the silver fern and running out on to the field. I have no doubt whatsoever that he was talking about the Parliamentary Rugby Team’s Golden Oldies team. I would just like to make special note of the awesome effort that his colleague Alfred Ngaro made out there on the fieldon Sunday. The whole time he was out there on the field he put everything into it and showed superb skills and levels of fitness. I would like to congratulate Alfred Ngaro and acknowledge his contribution on the field the other day.I think it is important that people are able to watch the games live and at a pub. There is a saying in our household that there is no point watching a replay of the game because yelling at a replay never affects the outcome of the game so it is important that people get the opportunity to watch it live and to enjoy it live.I also acknowledge a point that Grant Robertson made earlier which was that people will probably have a hangover more from coffee and bacon and eggs rather than alcohol because many of the games are going to be played in the morning between 6 o’clock and 8 o’clock when most people actually will not have been out at night drinking and then wanting to watch the game. Instead they will probably get up early and go down to the local pub—probably go down as a family have breakfast have coffee have bacon and watch the game and enjoy it in quite a sensible family situation. Notwithstanding there will be people who do want to go there for a drink. I know a District Court judge up in the north who said that if alcohol was suddenly banished from New Zealand 90 percent of his work would disappear along with it. So I do acknowledge the comments and the concerns that the Green Party does have about this. I do not really think that the problems will be as bad as it makes out.Most New Zealanders will want to go and watch the All Blacks games and there are seven of them. You know for Fiji versus Namibia and games like that I doubt that there will a lot of people who will really get themselves excited and drunk over the outcomes. People may have a slight interest in the games but most people will actually just stay at home to watch those games rather than going out. Maybe the South Africans when they are playing—there is a large South African community on the North Shore. Perhaps those people will go down to their local pub. But I really do not think that the majority of people will be there just trying to get sloshed.I think that most people will be quite sensible about it and will enjoy the occasion for what it is as David Bennett said. He said that it is an occasion that comes around every 4 years; it is a celebration of part of what it is to be a New Zealander. Our country has developed—the All Blacks have been part of our culture right from the 1880s when they first started out. It was 1905 when the Originals team left and toured Great Britain. The 3 nil loss to Wales was one of the saddest days of my life I have to say and I am struggling to get over it still along with the 1949 whitewash against the Springboks and the 1971 loss to the Lions. They still really really cut and—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Just maybe—KELVIN DAVIS: Bring it into the bill Mr Assistant Speaker?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Yes.KELVIN DAVIS: When we are talking rugby you know I tend to get a bit carried away there. However moving to the eligibility for premises being allowed to open—the bill would apply to on-licences and club licensed premises that intend to and do televise the Rugby World Cup matches. The Justice and Electoral Committee deliberated over limiting the number of games that could be screened but decided against such a restriction so all the games will be shown. I think it was going to be limited to 16 games initially; now all the games are going to be shown live. I just think that is sensible for the reasons I outlined earlier which is that there will be some shall we say minor nations that are going to be playing and I really do not expect thousands and thousands of New Zealanders to be pouring out of the pubs in the morning and getting all excited and overcome with emotion watching those games.Licensed premises that have had their hours varied in the previous 12 months under section 280 of the principal Act are ineligible for the provisions of the bill; that is the premises have been sanctioned for breaching their licence and they will not be allowed to open. As proposed in the original bill licensees would have to notify their district licensing committee and the Police 7 days before each game that they wish to open for outside their normal licensing hours and they will not have any appeal rights.There is one concern that I did see on the news tonight which was that due to the timing of some games in the last weekend whether premises may be allowed to be open for some 60-odd hours—there is that potential; I am not sure where Paddy Gower was going with that one—or whether premises may have to close for a certain amount of time in between games. According to the report on the news tonight some premises could be allowed to be open for some 60 hours. That would be a concern. I do not think that premises should be able to be open for that amount of time and I hope that is not an anomaly that has been allowed to creep into this bill.Licensees would be required to close for the sale of alcohol 30 minutes after the end of each game. However if the games are close together that may not actually be the case so I do have questions around that. The bill says the licensee may remain open if the game starts within the licensing hours. If the game starts within 2 hours after a premises’ normal licensing hours end then the premises may have its licensing hours extended through to 1 hour after the end of each game which is basically allowing people just to finish up their drinks and move on.There were concerns around noise management. Premises would not be allowed to have music blaring. If the police came in to check what was going on and people were there dancing and raging and the television was on in the corner that would not be allowed to happen. The premises would be closed. Also with the disposal of bottles—I do not know whether people have had to clean up after a party when there are a number of beer bottles to be emptied and they all get dumped into a bin at the same time. It makes a hang of a racket. If the premises are near enough even to apartments in the city then it makes quite a racket even if you are a few floors up.The one way - door policy will apply as normal but it will not apply 1 hour before during and 1 hour after each notified game. Licensees who do not comply with the terms of the bill—section 259 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act sets the infringement fine for the offence at $250 or $5000 if it goes through to the court. Licensees who have been granted special licences can choose whether they want to operate under that licence or under the provisions of the bill. Licensees may still apply for special licences if they do not wish to operate under the provisions of the bill. The refunding of special licences made redundant by the provisions of the bill would be determined by the relevant local authority.Before I conclude I think it is timely that we actually just wish the All Blacks the best. I know they are being named here in Parliament in a couple of days’ time. As Jan Logie said the spirit of the nation actually drops a bit if the All Blacks lose so the best thing to do is to wish them the best and hope that they do not lose so that we can continue to carry on in the next 4 years in a positive frame of mind. Certainly the years 1991 1995 1999 2003 and 2007 were some of the saddest of my life because we could not claim ourselves to be the world champions in rugby. So I wish the All Blacks all the best. Thank you.