Brownlee Gerry: Wine Bill — Second Reading Procedure In Committee Third Reading 
Brownlee Gerry: Wine Bill — Second Reading Procedure In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9501] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
: 
 There is no doubt about it. The social fabric of New Zealand will be to some extent destroyed by the Government’s proposal to stop smoking in bars. There is no question about that at all. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: I warn the member to bring his speech back to the Wine Bill please. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: One of the other things that people enjoy in those bars is wine. I think it is an outrageous proposal that the only way they can be assured about the wine they are drinking now it seems—as the Minister has told us—is if that wine has a Government stamp on it. What a backward-looking Government. 
Simon Power 
: Carless days. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: That was us actually so we do not want to talk about that. But one of the great things about carless days was that we could visit bars and not be worried about driving home. The point though is that it is just not fair or reasonable for the Government to promote the idea that in passing this legislation it has somehow done the industry a particular favour. All the Government has done after months and months is finally find some time in Parliament. It is members’ time I might say because we are not able to ask questions of the Government over the next couple of days—mainly because we know how much trouble Government members get into every time they are asked a question. We know that they do not like the scrutiny they are being put under. So here we are taking some members’ time to pass this bill. 
We want to see this bill passed for the industry. There are aspects of it that are clearly necessary. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade really does do himself a huge disservice by suggesting that the only way in which New Zealand’s wine industry can progress grow and be respected by buyers off shore is if there is a Government stamp on the wine. I want to know what the proposal is for training all these wine officers. What will make them so capable of issuing the stamp? 
Simon Power 
: Rick Barker will do well at that. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: My friend Simon Power suggests that— 
Government Members 
: Oh! 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Settle down! We have an appointment at 9.30—the whole lot of us. 
 The new wine officers may be appointed by the Hon Rick Barker. 
Simon Power 
: Good call he does JPs. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: He appoints JPs now and he does a fine job of that. 
One of the great advantages of the Minister being able to appoint wine officers is that when he comes to the Chamber with his clear plastic file—which we can see clean through when we look across the House—he will have some papers to put inside it. We would then have the assurance that that was the Government’s transparent way of appointing these officers. 
I started my speech by coupling the issue of smoking in bars with this bill. It seems to me that there is a freedom issue involved in this bill as well. While the industry may want to have all wine produced in New Zealand certified as being of a particular quality I would have thought that having the industry itself run such an organisation might have been better than having the Government set up its own bureaucracy around these so-called “wine policemen”. It is a very antiquated idea that the only way anyone can be assured that a bottle of wine produced in New Zealand is of a particular quality is to refer to the Government stamp. That puts us back in the Dark Ages somewhat as does the idea that people who are capable of earning their own income and capable of making most choices in their lives cannot go into a public bar and smoke cigarettes. But apparently it is going to be OK for those same people to buy marijuana and smoke that in all sorts of places. It is just hopeless.