Wagner Nicky: Alcohol Advisory Council Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Wagner Nicky: Alcohol Advisory Council Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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NICKY WAGNER (National) 
: 
 I too rise to support the third reading of the Alcohol Advisory Council Amendment Bill. It has been unanimously supported in this House and it has been very interesting to listen to MPs talk about the use of alcohol in their communities reflect on their childhoods and even talk about how alcohol and tobacco should be listed as drugs. 
But this bill really concerns only a technical amendment to the Alcohol Advisory Council Act of 1976. The bill is about updating streamlining and making a cheaper calculation system for the levy that funds the Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC). ALAC was set up over 30 years ago after a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Sale of Liquor. It was set up because at that time in 1976 it was thought there was a need for a permanent council whose aim would be to encourage responsible alcohol use and minimise the misuse of alcohol. It has been particularly interesting to listen to MPs to listen to the statistics and to ask when ALAC has been going for over 30 years how much real progress it has made. We are all concerned about the binge-drinking culture in New Zealand; we are all concerned about our young people. We are looking at ways to control the number of outlets in cities and the hours those outlets are open. Alcohol is more available but how much has ALAC actually delivered over the last 30 years? 
This bill supports the existing levy that underpins the money for ALAC but it ties the levy directly to and aligns it with the separate excise and excise-equivalent duties that are also calculated on alcohol. The whole idea of this change is to make the levy easy to calculate and to have a more transparent process but it is also to reflect the products in the current alcohol market. Back in 1976 we were drinking very differently—drinking different products drinking in different places and drinking at different times. It is interesting to see how the definitions of alcohol have changed. For example we have taken the four definitions for wine that were originally in the levy and reduced them down to one. 
We have also looked at definitions in terms of the new products that are very commonly in use but I think that the ones that are perhaps the most frequently used and the ones that are perhaps most disturbing to New Zealanders are the ready-to-drinks—that is the mixtures of spirits and sticky soft drinks that young people particularly enjoy. I think that one of the problems that really concern people is that those ready-to-drinks are so similar to soft drinks. Obviously the marketing is designed so that young people can pick them up and go glug glug glug just as they did with soft drinks in the years when they were kids. Ready-to-drinks taste the same as soft drinks look the same have similar graphics and have bright-coloured containers. I think those are the things that make young people attracted to the drinks but also that cause them not to understand how powerful the drinks are. Ready-to-drinks are certainly leading to lots of trouble for young people. 
When we were looking at this levy we also wanted to make sure that it was flexible enough to be able to deal with future products that we have not thought about yet—to future-proof it so that it would not have to be updated again as we are doing right now. This levy will not affect the people who pay it. In fact it is supported by the industry—by producers manufacturers and wholesalers. It makes only the most minor of price changes: a few cents on a bottle of wine on a six-pack of beer or on those ready-to-drinks. 
We support the levy because we support the fact that a levy should go to ALAC and that ALAC should be educating New Zealanders to use alcohol sensibly and to reduce alcohol harm. We support it because we understand that we need good research into how we are drinking why we are drinking and where we are drinking. We need good research so that we can create more innovative treatment programmes. We need good research so that we can educate our young people and ALAC is particularly active in the education area. It works with schools it works with communities and of course it has a very powerful and regular advertising programme to educate us that “It’s not the drinking. It’s how we’re drinking.” In other words it educates us that alcohol is not necessarily bad—it is how we use that alcohol that can be bad. Those advertising messages are very powerful; 94 percent of New Zealanders have seen them have listened to them have been moved by them and have considered how much they are drinking now and how much they should be drinking in the future. Yes ALAC is there it is doing good work and it is educating New Zealand. It is trying to make us use alcohol more sensibly and we support it. And we support this bill which streamlines simplifies and calculates the levy for ALAC. Thank you.