Twyford Phil: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Twyford Phil: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 06 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7304. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatu) 
: 
 I want to thank the Minister in the chair Chester Borrows for at least standing up and responding to some of the questions and criticisms that have been levelled at the Alcohol Reform Bill in the course of this debate. But I have to say that in response to real substantive questions about the bill that have been debated publicly to simply get up and say that that is the advice that the Minister has had from officials is not good enough. 
I do not blame the Minister in the chair—he is sitting there and he has advice in front of him—but I do blame the Hon Judith Collins for remarks that I can interpret only as being utterly disingenuous when she says that they have to delay the implementation of local alcohol policies by 12 months because small councils simply will not be ready. She completely overlooks the fact that the provisions on local alcohol policies in the bill give councils the option to implement local alcohol policies. No one is going to be forced to do it. Big or small councils—it does not matter. The law is the same throughout New Zealand. It is not as she misleadingly suggests that if we were to not have a 12-month delay then it would create a kind of haphazard situation with certain councils doing one thing and other councils doing another. The very nature of local alcohol policies is that they give communities the freedom that they are asking for to develop local solutions. 
 I cannot understand why the Government has been so obstinate in insisting that there be a 12-month delay. It will mean that councils will have to wait up to 16 months before their communities get the benefit of these policies. I can think only that either the Government is trying to shield the liquor industry from the effect of giving councils the powers to regulate at the local level—and if that is the case it would be completely shameful. The only other explanation that I can think of is that it is just another example of the kind of pigheaded hostility that this Government exhibits towards the Auckland Council and the fact that it is Mayor Len Brown and the Auckland Council who have responded to the acute social problems at street level caused by alcohol abuse and drunkenness particularly in central Auckland for a long time now. 
I quote from the  
New Zealand Herald  
editorial from 27 October which talks about the fact that the Auckland Council has responded to these social problems. It has worked with police cooperation and it has drawn up a local alcohol policy to be implemented as soon as possible. A key feature is instant fines for breaching liquor bans. The local initiative awaits only the passage of this bill. Now it must be postponed as the  
New Zealand Herald  
says “And all for no good reason.” The  
New Zealand Herald  
goes on to say: “It makes no sense to claim there must be a time frame that small councils can meet. Many of these councils will see no great need for an alcohol policy.” Under this bill they have the freedom to choose whether they do it at all and if they do choose to do it when they do it. “The Government’s approach”—says the  
New Zealand Herald 
—“is the more baffling in that having largely sidestepped alcohol reform [with this bill] it can through local policies transfer future responsibility to councils. The delay simply underlines [the Government’s] unwillingness to act decisively.” on the issue of alcohol reform. That is from the  
New Zealand Herald 
. 
I think that it is a real shame that one of the few decent things that remain in this bill after years of work by the Law Commission after intense public debate and political attention to this issue—one of the few decent things to have survived the absolute gutlessness of the National Government’s approach to alcohol reform—are these local alcohol policies. 
The Auckland Council has been working overtime to develop a local response. It is waiting on this passage of this bill and for some unknown reason it is going to have to wait 16 months before the people of Auckland can take advantage of it. And any other communities around New Zealand who want to take advantage of the local alcohol policies are also going to have to wait 16 months from the day that this bill becomes law before provisions like one-way doors maximum opening hours instant fines for breaches of liquor bans—before any of those things. The number and location of liquor outlets—