Flavell Te Ururoa: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6159. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chairperson. Kia ora tatou katoa. I wanted to take an opportunity to look at a fair chunk of Supplementary Order Paper 81 which I have presented to the Committee. But to set the scene and to make sure that it is in a context: one in five Maori will have an alcohol-abuse disorder at some stage in their lives. One in 10 will become dependent on alcohol. Those most likely to have alcohol abuse and dependence issues are those living in the very poorest households and communities. Alcohol use in low socio-economic communities is associated with high levels of crime educational underachievement poor economic prospects and chronic welfare dependency. That is where the Maori Party does not want our people to be. Lifting the standard of living in these communities means addressing alcohol issues. 
Maori make up a disproportionate number of the clients in alcohol and drug treatment services. Maori tamariki and rangatahi are seen by alcohol and drug treatment services at a rate of at least three times the rate of non-Maori the same age. So from the Maori Party perspective we have much to do. Although the Alcohol Reform Bill does go some way towards addressing some of those issues clearly across the Committee as we have had the debate over the last 2 days there are some of us who feel we could go a little bit further. 
There are a number of key clauses that I wanted to identify to the Committee in my opportunity to speak. Pretty much most of them are captured in this part Part 3. The first one is relatively straightforward and it is talking about the notion of a sinking-lid policy if you like on off-licences. What we are talking about here is starting to bring down the number of liquor stores while allowing relocation of existing premises not to disadvantage those who are already there but certainly to look toward the sinking-lid policy if you want to call it that. 
 When I was a young fellow in my home town of Ngongotaha which is just north of Rotorua there was one pub full stop—one pub. Whether that is a good thing or bad thing I will not say but it was a vital part of the community. I listened to the Hon Judith Collins talk about her circumstances when she was younger and pretty much—my mother in particular visited that place and it was good for the community. It was good for the community. My dad I can be proud to say bless his soul was known as a sly-grogger at Mangakino at the power station at a time when Maori were not allowed to buy alcohol. So there is a bit of a context there. But coming back to Ngongotaha there was one pub for that small community. If you go through Rotorua heading to Tauranga on the back road you will find it. Now there are two bottle stores two pubs and a supermarket all selling alcohol. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: And the good singer has gone too. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: And the what? 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: The good singer has gone. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: Oh well the point is— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: That was Howard’s pub. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: Oh no was it? You are joking. It was not the Ngongotaha pub no. He was up at the lake house. I digress from the topic. 
What I am saying and other speakers have talked about this is that the proliferation of venues that sell alcohol has grown. I am talking about my small home town that as I said had one small pub which was a central focus. Now it has five places where you can buy alcohol. It just does not seem right. We have heard other stories. Louisa Wall talked about Manurewa her electorate or Otara those smaller places where you can walk around and at every corner you will find a liquor outlet—small outlets that can even fit in half the size or even a quarter of the size of this Chamber set up to sell alcohol. We have got to do something about that and my amendment is about moving in that direction and bringing a sinking-lid policy while not disadvantaging those who are already in that business I suppose. So that is the first point and I hope that the Committee gives some serious consideration to that. 
Another part of the amendment that I bring to the Committee is changing and adapting the trading hours from 8 a.m. to 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. That is a change in the opportunity again to sell alcohol. The other element that is brought in here is for on-licence premises to have a one-way door policy meaning that once you are in the premises you are stuck there. If you go out goodbye do not come back—after 1 o’clock it is time to go home. Very often I know from having taken some young adults from home into Rotorua they tend to move around for whatever reason and in doing so they consume more alcohol as they go. It is likely they have some in their cars because they want to visit all of the nightclubs. This is one way of dealing with this particular angle of young people moving from place to place. Once you go in the premises you are there. You are stuck there and if you go it is the end of the story between the hours of 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. We think that this is a good provision that will hopefully be supported by the Committee. I noted some of the comments made by the Minister of Justice earlier about the trading hours—many comments actually—that there are only 3 out of 24 hours when alcohol is not available to be sold at this point in time. That is wrong. That is wrong. 
The third part of the amendments that I have put forward are talking about the proximity to schools in respect of being a part of the deciding factors about whether a licence can be issued. I know that Louisa Wall talked about that and some have talked about perhaps having a distance. What we are talking about here is making sure that it has a little bit more bite on how those licensing authorities actually go about their work. Again we think this is a sensible thing. It gives a little more clout to licensing authorities to give more consideration to where schools are in terms of determining whether the place that is selling the alcohol is allowed to have a licence and in fact to set up a premises in that proximity. 
The last one that I wanted to touch base on in the bit of time I have got available without diverting too far is this question about the appointment to licensing committees within territorial authorities. In a sense because Maori for all intents and purposes have been at the bad end of some of the statistics—and I opened with some of those comments—the view is that it would be appropriate to have Maori representation as of right if you like on those territorial authorities. So the Supplementary Order Paper is asking that there be provisions or rather that the provisions in respect of the appointment of licensing committees within territorial authorities be amended so as to provide for the appointment of Maori members by local iwi or hapu to those committees. In the amendment it proposes that “3 [members] are appointed by the territorial authority for that ... district; and 1 [member] is appointed by local iwi or hapu ...”. 
What we found even in cases like the  
Rena 
—and we spoke about it in the debate on the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill recently—is that not only the impact but also the ability of Maori to be a part of decision-making processes within those authorities by hapu and by iwi is an important ingredient to getting buy in. It would seem to us thinking back on the experience of the  
Rena 
 disaster that having Maori involvement at that level—at the decision-making level—brings about buy in. Certainly it does at a hapu level because these appointments would be made by hapu and iwi people and therefore there must be a link back to the local community. In that regard we would hope that the Minister looked carefully at this one. It is not a big ask—one person an iwi or hapu delegate to be appointed on to the territorial authorities to be able to give some insight if you like into not how Maori think about alcohol because sometimes thinking does not come into it but certainly to be able to have input about the disastrous effects that it has had on Maori hapu iwi and kainga. 
So those are pretty much the main thrusts of the amendments certainly around the licensing requirements and conditions. I have not touched on minimum pricing because I think we will hold that one for a little bit longer. But certainly we believe that these amendments that are here are fair are considered and may well add or at least contribute in some way to dealing with some of the issues that members across the House have raised. We ask the Minister to give serious consideration to amendments in that order. Thank you very much. Kia ora tatou.