Sowry Roger: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
Sowry Roger: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:608;Page:5422] 
Hon ROGER SOWRY (Deputy Leader—NZ National) 
: 
 Part 2 is the meat of this bill. This is really the major part of the legislation and if this bill was before a select committee this is the part that we would be spending all our time on. I hope we do get sufficient time to cover what is a very very significant part of the bill. 
Part 2 lists all the different categories and item numbers that will have excise duty and tariff changes. This is the part of the bill that one reads to find out exactly what tariff change is taking place on what particular items. This is the part that spells out exactly what is happening to all the alcopops and ready-to-drinks. It spells out very clearly what is happening to items 2208.90.56 2208.90.60 and 2208.90.67 which in English—because all we have in this bill is a list of numbers—are the ready-to-drink mixes that were described to me earlier on by the owner of a liquor store as “kids’ drinks”. It shows that those drinks are being adjusted in terms of their excise duty by the rate of inflation doing nothing to put up excise on those drinks at all. In this part the bill puts up excise on a whole range of other drinks such as sherries and ports. 
So we are in a situation where the Government is now saying to young people who want to go out and drink that if they want to drink spirits they should not buy them and mix them but they should buy them pre-mixed. The Government is telling young people that if they buy spirits and mix them it will tax them a lot more so they should buy them pre-mixed. How logical is that? That does not send the message to young people. That does not send the message that the Minister Mr Anderton told us about in the opening stages of debate—that this is about stopping young people from drinking. Judy Turner from United Future gave a very impassioned speech explaining that she is supporting this bill because it sends a message to young people about drinking. It does not do that. Those drinks are not adjusted. 
Judy Turner 
: That’s right. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: Mrs Turner is happy with that. So why does she want the tax put up on a bottle of vodka when it is not mixed with orange juice but left low when it is mixed with orange juice? I ask Mrs Turner what the difference is. She does not know the difference. She will go home from here and her children will ask why she was up all night and she will say that she was debating a bill to make sure that port and sherry went up in price because we do not want young people to drink them. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: And their Madeira. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: And their Madeira. Young people do not want to drink port and sherry. They want to drink vodka and rum and now they know that if they buy a 750 ml or 1125 ml bottle of vodka and rum Mrs Turner has voted to put the tax up on that hugely. But if they buy the rum mixed with the Coke or the vodka mixed with the orange juice that is OK—there will be no increase in tax under this part other than a rise in price in keeping with inflation. That is all.