Parker David: Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill — In Committee 
Parker David: Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:668;Page:15099] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
:  
Part 5 of the Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill deals with Rugby World Cup liquor licences. I will ask the Minister in the chair the Hon Dr Wayne Mapp to address a couple of issues. 
The first point I make is to agree that there was a need to make some changes to liquor licence laws. One reason was the decision from some branch of the liquor licensing authorities stating that where an event is to be held outside of the normal terms and conditions of liquor licences—a situation that is the subject of a special licence application at the moment—and where the grounds for that application are to replay or play contemporaneously in another venue televised coverage of a match that is on elsewhere it is not within the jurisdiction of the authority to grant the application. That may well be a fair rule normally but the view of the Government—and the Opposition agrees—is that in respect of the Rugby World Cup when there will be a lot of people in town who for some matches will not be able to get a ticket and who will want to go along and watch the game somewhere else those people should be able to do that on licensed premises. Those licensed premises should be able to get a variation of their licence to enable that to happen and this bill enables it to happen. 
The other question I would like the Minister to answer is whether he is willing to express an opinion based on the experiences that we had at Eden Park over the weekend about whether we need to take a bit of care here. People getting too tanked up booing during the Australian national anthem and throwing bottles on to Eden Park is not a good look. I am sure that none of us in this Chamber want to see that repeated in the Rugby World Cup. Given that the authorities said that the rugby league match on the weekend was a bit of a dress rehearsal for what will happen at the Rugby World Cup there might be a need to look at some of those licensing conditions as they apply to Eden Park. 
Personally I have always thought that it is a nonsense that in New Zealand we can buy cans and bottles at such venues. They cannot in America. Why not? Because personal injury cases were taken in America and won when the relevant counsel took out of a paper bag the simple solution of a paper or plastic cup which of course avoids injury to people. It is pretty hard to throw a paper cup very far—the liquid falls out—compared with a full bottle which can hurt someone. I hope that consideration is given to moving to that sort of a regime in New Zealand where we consider at least—and I am not sure what the right answer is—whether under liquor licensing conditions we can protect the public from injury by making sure that liquor is served in a vessel that cannot be thrown. It is a pretty simple advance that seems to have been made in other Western democracies including the United States and I hope that through this legislation we can achieve something similar. 
I ask the Minister in the chair whether the provisions of Part 5 on Rugby World Cup liquor licences can be used to impose reasonable conditions that are better for members of the public. It would also mean that someone cannot walk back with a dozen secreted around different parts of his or her body because it is pretty hard to carry a dozen open vessels of beer. I ask that the Minister in the chair address that issue which arose out of the experience that we had in Eden Park over the weekend.