Flavell Te Ururoa: Sale and Supply of Liquor and Liquor Enforcement Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Sale and Supply of Liquor and Liquor Enforcement Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:652;Page:1805] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou i tenei po. Members might not know that I do not drink too much these days but I find myself thinking that I may be a bit of a hypocrite talking about this sort of bill and about the rights and wrongs of drinking or purchasing liquor. I have to admit that once upon a time I did venture into a pub—before I was supposed to— 
Hon John Carter 
: By mistake. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: I purchased alcohol by mistake ahead of the right age and yes I got led astray by some of my friends by mistake and lost my mana. 
Hon Member 
: That must have been Te Arawa. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: By mistake it was. In those days drinking seemed to be all about fun; that was the focus. But in reflecting on this bill it seems to me that times have changed a little bit. I say that because last August as most of the members of the House will know in the southern regions down in the Te Tai Tonga area in Dunedin riot police had to come out to battle with crowds of drunk university students as they threw bottles and burnt couches in what is generally known as the Undie 500. We understand that 30 people were arrested for disorderly behaviour obstruction and breaching the liquor ban in the annual riot that is all too often dismissed as some would say student pranks. Somewhere along the line the alcohol-fuelled trip organised by the students union blurred the distinction between off-campus fun and behaviour of a criminal nature. This seems to be the case more often than not these days. 
 As I stated last week in a debate on a similar bill—and despite my feeling a bit of a hypocrite—the Maori Party is greatly concerned about alcohol and drugs and the part they play in youth crisis situations. It did not seem to be like that in my time. During the debate last week I spoke of the fact that alcohol-related harm is a major contributor to preventable health and social costs on young people. I also spoke of the reality that young people are more than twice as likely to suffer from alcohol-related harm as those in other age groups. As parents grandparents and in some cases great-grandparents we hear stories about the drinking behaviour of our rangatahi. As a caucus we of the Maori Party are determined that we have to do something about it. 
We know that overall a lower proportion of rangatahi Maori drink alcohol compared with non-Maori. That is pretty great from our perspective in the sense that most of the statistics around our people are not all that crash hot. Unfortunately compared with all non-Maori and with people aged over 30 years those young Maori people who drink alcohol appear to be disproportionately engaged in heavier and riskier drinking. 
Young people themselves report that alcohol is usually supplied by parents in about 60 percent of cases and by friends aged over 18 years in 30 percent of cases. The Sale and Supply of Liquor and Liquor Enforcement Bill is intended to improve industry compliance and responsibility in order to put the focus fairly and squarely at the feet of the alcohol barons and the alcohol industry. 
As other speakers have said this bill seeks to regulate where to whom when and how alcohol can be sold in communities. Importantly this bill will implement the recommendations arising from the review of the sale and supply of liquor to under-18-year-olds in New Zealand. Well we say that is all good but of course it misses the point. It is not the fact that we are buying booze that is the problem; it is the fact that we are drinking. 
Nothing in this bill specifically focuses on those whom the young people identified as handing over the alcohol to them namely their parents and friends. The bill targets the industry local authorities on-licences and off-licences—in fact everyone except the person holding the wallet which is our concern. That is not to say it is not important to have the wider community take responsibility for this problem but more to suggest that we must target our efforts on those who are within the immediate orbit of the young people who are the focus of this bill. 
The Maori Party has always said there should be a variety of strategies both legislative and non-legislative to reduce the overall supply of alcohol to young people in order to limit their drinking and its associated harms. We know as other speakers have said this evening that to stem the tide of this desperate problem of binge drinking by young people we cannot put up ad hoc proposals in isolation from the overall drinking culture of the nation. This bill is a step in the right direction in terms of putting in place different approaches to addressing the responsibility of those supplying alcohol to our young people from a commercial premises. 
The bill attempts to address drinking behaviour by improving industry compliance and responsibility to regulate where to whom when and how alcohol can be sold in communities and to ensure that social impact is taken into consideration in licensing conditions. That is all good and we support any moves to bring responsibility to the front of the korero. We understand that that responsibility is specified in the bill in a number of ways and other speakers have mentioned them. Firstly the bill introduces local alcohol plans to be adopted using consultative procedures provided for in the Local Government Act thus increasing community input into licensing decisions. Secondly any application for an on-licence an off-licence or a club has to be consistent with the local alcohol plan. Local authorities need to notify the authority to state that they support the granting of the licence. Thirdly the types of premises that may hold liquor licences are defined. Off-licences cannot be granted in small premises and are restricted to selling wine and beer. Finally—and importantly—those supplying alcohol will be subject to more stringent rules around their own performance in the industry. 
A lot of these changes are to do with self-regulation and self-control. In 2000 at Manu Ariki near Taumarunui the first Maori alcohol and drug summit took place. Two of the key recommendations from the summit were one a need for leadership to advise and guide kai mahi—workers in the drug and alcohol area—and two a need for cultural competencies to standardise drug and alcohol services. Leadership may be about having Maori staff and Maori counsellors who have knowledge of tikanga and kuia and kaumatua as mentors explaining and promoting the programme to whanau so they understand what is involved. 
Turning to the cultural competencies it is all about developing a whole-of-whanau approach especially if there are drug and alcohol issues at home. Since that first summit Maori alcohol and drug service providers have been meeting regularly I am told to ensure that Maori retain mastery over our own solutions to address alcohol-related harm. Their commitment is that Maori are able to honour and respect themselves others and their places of belonging. To do that Maori need to be free of the behaviours that threaten our way of being. 
When we look through the Sale and Supply of Liquor and Liquor Enforcement Bill we can say that although we are pleased to see the greater clarity around the roles of managers of off-licence premises and of licensing authorities we know it is but a partial solution. Real solutions are likely to be most effective when coordinated at multiple levels in society. Real solutions involve stakeholders at all levels and we believe our families and whanau. Real solutions engage our whanau and are directly run with those who are at the centre of this bill: our rangatahi. 
We will support this bill at its first reading because we want to encourage a debate that is as wide as possible on an issue of such critical and fundamental importance to our nation. Our policy as the Maori Party has been to support whanau-focused alcohol and drug addiction recovery and restoration services. We are particularly concerned for the futures of our young people. More than 53 percent of the entire Maori population is under 25 years of age so we have plenty at stake here. 
We cannot turn a blind eye and ignore the profile of young people who drink in Aotearoa New Zealand. We know that the consumption of large quantities of alcohol in one sitting seems to be an accepted norm these days and if there is one thing we would most like to see this bill achieve it would be to change the attitudes that lead to the behaviours of binge drinking and getting wasted which we all condemn. We will support this bill and we look forward to more changes to come to ensure a huge and meaningful reduction in drinking-related harm for our young people. Kia ora tatou.