Faafoi Kris: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Faafoi Kris: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6173. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Most Monday mornings the staff of Russell School in Porirua East do their security check of their school-grounds after the weekend. Sometimes they have parents joining them. It is not uncommon for them to find pretty clear evidence that some of the locals have used the school-grounds over the weekend to have their party. By solid evidence I mean that they find broken bottles cans rubbish vomit urine and unfortunately every so often used condoms and things like that. They have to in the small time available to them clean up the school of that kind of rubbish before the kids arrive for their first class. This has been an issue at Russell School for some time because directly across the road from that school is one of these bottle stores that sell booze quite cheaply. 
Russell School has been at the forefront of an effort in Porirua East to try to make sure that we can do something to protect our young children from you know the physical evidence of alcohol and also from exposure to the advertising that they have so close to them. That is why I stand in support of Supplementary Order Paper 107 which is being put forward by my colleague Louisa Wall. I do think that if we are going to make some kind of dramatic culture change as we keep saying in this House to try to change the way in which we see alcohol and which we use alcohol something needs to be done to reduce the exposure of our young children to alcohol. So that is why I am supporting the Supplementary Order Paper of Louisa Wall—to make sure that there are no off-licences within 1 kilometre of schools early childhood education centres and secondary schools. 
I do want to add the proviso that hopefully there is a local alcohol plan and that those communities that have just one general store that is obviously quite close to their primary school or to their area school—and I am talking about rural communities so in my own electorate I am talking about the likes of Pukerua Bay and Pauatahanui—do actually have the ability to apply for a dispensation from that ban from the radius within 1 kilometre. I think that is a very important aspect of the Supplementary Order Paper that has been put forward by Louisa Wall. 
We do need to make sure that we lessen the effect of alcohol advertising that is so close to our schools. As I mentioned earlier Russell School is directly across the road from a liquor store which has the likes of Jim Beam Woodstock and every other alcoholic beverage that you can think of blazing from advertising in its windows and from advertising hoardings outside the shop. 
If we are as I mentioned earlier really serious about reducing the binge-drinking culture within our community then I do think we need to lessen the exposure of our young children to alcohol advertising and that is why banning the ability for off-licences to advertise within 1 kilometre of a school or early childhood education centre is something that I support. 
The Porirua East community has had to amp up twice over the last 4 or 5 years to stop bottle stores either being established in their communities or acting in a manner that is harming their communities and to try to stop the behaviour of some of the people who are drinking the alcohol and the people who are selling the alcohol to make sure that their children are safe in their own communities. I do think it is important that we give our communities a local voice through local alcohol plans. I think there is a Supplementary Order Paper in the name of Kevin Hague to ensure that they are mandatory—he is nodding so that is correct. The ability for councils to have local alcohol plans is very very important. 
I want to note something that the Minister in the chair the Hon Judith Collins did say. I also agree that there is a degree of personal responsibility required from people who are buying the alcohol from these stores. I do not want those people buying the alcohol at these stores and then going across to the likes of Russell School—