Burns Brendon: Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill — In Committee 
Burns Brendon: Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:668;Page:14835] 
BRENDON BURNS (Labour—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 Part 2 of the Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill establishes the Rugby World Cup Authority. I want to make very clear and explicit that Labour supports the establishment of the Rugby World Cup Authority. Like my colleague Grant Robertson I was working for Helen Clark when we won the bid for the Rugby World Cup. It was a very exciting time and it remains a very exciting time for New Zealand. We need a bill like this to facilitate what that event will bring to us. But that does not mean giving a Minister carte blanche to make the final decisions. That is why we are establishing under Part 2 the Rugby World Cup Authority. 
I say also as the MP for Christchurch Central host to the AMI Stadium which is the natural centre of rugby in New Zealand given the success of the Canterbury team and the Crusaders team that the stadium will be hosting no less than seven games during the Rugby World Cup—no less than seven games—and that includes two quarter finals. That is very important for Christchurch particularly at this time. It is very important given the economic boost it will bring most especially because of the economic devastation that the earthquake brought to my city. 
We are looking forward to the Rugby World Cup but we will not do it in a way that gives carte blanche to a Minister of Mr McCully’s reputation. I will give an example of aspects of this bill that are still quite perturbing and disturbing. I note for instance that Part 2 gives the right to the Rugby World Cup Authority to award liquor licences. Then it goes on to say that in doing so and in exercising its functions under this Act the authority must “ensure the efficient safe and lawful conduct of the Rugby World Cup 2011” and “that public health and safety are protected as far as is reasonably practicable during the period of the Rugby World Cup 2011.” 
I draw to the attention of the Committee the advice of the police on the issue of alcohol being served in stadia. For a 6-month period from October last year through to March this year the police conducted a very strong campaign lobbying their own Minister Judith Collins the Minister for the Rugby World Cup and the Minister for Economic Development. They said to those Ministers that very serious consideration should be given to providing what they call wet-pour beer facilities as part of the public investment being made in upgrading stadia for the Rugby World Cup. The logic of the police as revealed in an Official Information Act request that I lodged with the Minister in March this year is that they were having ongoing discussions with the Rugby World Cup management about the risk management of excessive alcohol consumption. The Rugby World Cup 2011 management was arguing that the cost was high but the police had made very very clear that worldwide the move to the provision of wet-pour facilities together with low alcohol or zero alcohol in the bowl area of stadia was happening and that wet-pour facilities were already available at Eden Park when cricket matches were being held. So cricket matches at Eden Park have wet-pour facilities. 
However the Government’s position remained adamant throughout the 6-month police campaign. It kept saying that this had to be because of the economic advantage that it brought. The police continued. They brought it up to the level of the Deputy Commissioner of Police Rob Pope who in a note to the Minister dated 9 December of last year advised the Minister that the police considered the legacy investment in the Rugby World Cup facilities should include investment in infrastructure necessary to allow wet-pour facilities. He asked that this briefing be forwarded to the Minister for Economic Development the Minister of Justice and the Minister Mr McCully. 
The rationale for the police’s position in supporting a wet pour—that is beer being poured into plastic glasses rather than the proposal that won the day in the final analysis which was for beer to be served in cans—was and I am quoting from the police’s own paper: “That the misuse of alcohol violence and disorder are associated with major events and the police’s position is supported by international studies which clearly show the relationship between sporting events and offending and victimisation and that the provision of alcoholic beverages in foam or plastic cups tends to reduce the potential—