Kaye Nikki: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Kaye Nikki: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 30 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:5006. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) 
: 
 Last night we passed the first reading of the marriage equality bill. Members walked into this House and said they believe in equality. This bill the Alcohol Reform Bill focuses on rights and freedoms. I do accept that occasionally this Parliament does pass legislation that discriminates against people with regard to age. But as someone who values freedom I believe that the evidence must be there and the threshold must be high. 
Let me be very clear. I believe we need tougher alcohol laws in this country. I believe that New Zealand’s alcohol laws are far too loose. Most of us in this House believe that there needs to be a culture change in this country. Where we differ is how we do that. Where we also differ is in what the combination of policies are that are needed to reduce supply to minors restrict overall supply and improve enforcement. 
The rest of the Alcohol Reform Bill will be debated in the coming months. Today we are going to have a vote on one provision focused on a change to the purchase age. Last night thousands of young New Zealanders tuned in on social media and Parliament TV. Many of them have expressed huge pride in the vote last night. Some of them do not realise that within hours of Parliament empowering young people Parliament is now at risk of restricting the freedom of young New Zealanders. As I said before I could accept that if the evidence was clear that youth drinking had not been reduced since the age was lowered. Surveys taken between 1997 and 2010 show that under-18 drinking has dropped by over 45 percent. In 2006 Alcohol Advisory Council research found that 53 percent of 12 to 17-year-olds were drinkers but by 2010 that had reduced to 32 percent. That is a relative drop of 40 percent in terms of prevalence rates in the last 5 years. 
I want to be clear again: I believe in reducing youth drinking—I just believe that there are greater provisions to achieve that. I also want to be clear that if we look at the Alcohol Reform Bill those provisions focus on the restriction of supply with regard to convenience stores and dairies they focus on targeting young people in terms of advertising and restrictions around advertising provisions and they also focus on the falsification of ID. These are effective measures that target and restrict supply to young people. 
Probably one of the most significant things in the bill that in my view will reduce the ability of young people to get access to alcohol is the express consent provision. What does the overall evidence show again? Whom do most young people learn to drink from? It is their parents. Where do most young people get alcohol from? They get it from their parents and family members who are over 20. I say as well—and Kevin Hague pointed this out—that when we look at the proportion of young people and where they get alcohol from 92 percent get it from people over the age of 20. These are very clear statistics from the  
ALAC Alcohol Monitor 
. This is very clear evidence that rather than parliamentarians walking into this Chamber and in my view voting for discriminatory legislation that disproportionately blames 18 and 19-year-olds for a wider cultural issue in New Zealand you need to vote with your heads and vote for provisions that will make an actual difference in terms of the restriction of supply. 
I want to touch briefly on the split age. I believe it is confusing and could have serious unintended consequences. For rural kids where is their transport? Rural kids are being told that they need to go into town to drink. In my view that is going to lead to an increase in drink-driving and that is a serious unintended consequence. I also want to be clear that in terms of raising the age to 20 let us think about how this may undermine the rest of the bill. The rest of the bill is focused on provisions targeted at anyone who supplies to a minor without parental consent. Do we really think that 18 and 19-year-olds are not going to have unsupervised access to alcohol? The thousands of young people who are around the country in our universities are they going call mum and dad when they want to have a drink? Do we really think all of those 18 and 19-year-olds who are currently working will ring mum and dad when they want to have a drink? I believe that the split age law is confusing and could have serious unintended consequences but I also believe that if you can marry if you can go to war for your country and if you can be elected to this Parliament then you have the ability to be able to have a drink.