Street Maryan: Alcohol Reform Bill — Procedure In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Street Maryan: Alcohol Reform Bill — Procedure In Committee 
[Sitting date: 23 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6072. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I also rise to speak in favour of this new Part 2A in the Alcohol Reform Bill proposed by Hone Harawira in Supplementary Order Paper 121 requiring a review of ages for the sale and purchase of alcohol being written into the legislation and specifying a 5-year period at the end of which the provisions around the age of sale and purchase should be reviewed. I think this is a very sensible measure not just because I lost on both of the votes that we took on the age. I voted in the first instance for a split age and in the second instance for the age to be raised to 20. The reasons I did that were purely and simply health grounds and purely and simply because the work of the Law Commission was based on evidence that came before it. It is on that same basis that I would like the age for the sale and purchase of alcohol to be reviewed as of law and as of a specified time this being 5 years after the commencement of this Act. 
 It seems to me that with this particularly sensitive piece of what is social legislation many parts of which have traditionally been subjected to a conscience vote it is imperative that this House revisit its decisions on this legislation at regular intervals. Hone Harawira has said 5 years. I will support that because we will arrive after a couple of days of debate at a piece of legislation that will set down the law surrounding the availability the promotion and the sale and purchase of alcohol. I do not believe that our social circumstances will remain the same in 5 years’ time as they are now. In other words we have waited 12 years for this opportunity to come to this House and it has been a long time coming and I am disappointed in many of the provisions in the legislation as it appears now. There is much that I will support because it is an improvement on what we have got but that is not the highest accolade I could wish for in a piece of legislation of this sort. In 5 years’ time we will be able to assess the extent to which the alcohol industry the hospitality industry and everybody associated with them have been able to find ways around the laws that we are about to pass. 
Although I am disappointed about some of the provisions that are in the legislation particularly around advertising and promotion and so on—and there are amendments and Supplementary Order Papers to address some of these which I do support—the fact remains that in 5 years’ time we will be in a better place to know whether or not the hospitality industry and all of those industrial giants that benefit from as light-handed a regulatory approach to this issue as possible have been able to find ways of subverting it. In other words are there new products on the market? Clearly there are new products on the market now targeted at young people that were not present the last time liquor laws were promulgated by this Parliament. There are new approaches to advertising there are new risks and dangers attaching to new products and we need to have the chance to revisit the age of sale and purchase on the basis of contemporary evidence. It is for that reason that I would support Hone Harawira’s new Part 2A which would seek to embed a 5-year review period into this legislation. 
One of the things that I think is a real concern is the area of health promotion and I do agree with my colleague who has just resumed her seat the Hon Lianne Dalziel that health promotion has taken a tumble under this Government. Even though a health promotion agency has recently been established we have yet to see whether or not it is going to be strong enough to stand up to vested interests of industry. That has yet to be seen. In 5 years’ time if we have evidence that new products are on the market that are not covered by the legislation if there are new ways of promoting or advertising or enticing young people into consuming alcohol and consuming it in a way that is not safe then this Parliament ought to be given the imperative of a 5-year review period to bring back to the floor of this Chamber the whole question of the age of purchase and sale of alcohol so that it can be debated again and the contemporary evidence including any evidence that health promotion efforts that have been undertaken have been successful can be assessed. 
 I am concerned that we often talk—and there has been talk already in the debate this afternoon—that this is a “once in a generation” opportunity to get our alcohol laws right. I remain disappointed with many aspects of this legislation. I think that Hone Harawira’s amendment is a good halfway house—perhaps that is not the most appropriate expression either in the context of this debate. However this does seem to be a good compromise measure that would compel this House to review the age of sale and purchase again on the basis of contemporary current evidence and on the basis of whether or not we know that any health promotion and health education messages are in fact working for our young people. This is an issue of concern. This is an issue that many out in the general public feel this House has got wrong. I think it is incumbent upon this Committee to put in place a point at which there must be a review. Hone Harawira’s amendment seeks to do this and for that reason I support it.