Macindoe Tim: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Macindoe Tim: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 30 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:5004. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West) 
: 
 If this were an issue of simply preventing 18 and 19-year-olds from having a quiet beer we would not be having this debate today. What we are talking about is an issue of profound importance in our community. To those who say we are singling out young people and piling all the blame on them I say that is absolutely untrue. We are looking at protecting them from an aspect of their lifestyle our whole lifestyle that is doing enormous damage. 
There is nothing in this bill the Alcohol Reform Bill—not in my amendment not in any part of his bill—that will stop an 18-year-old or 19-year-old from having a quiet beer. On the contrary I stand with most members of this Committee in saying that is to be encouraged and I welcome them. I simply say however as a parent whose children have just passed through this age group that it was my responsibility and my wife’s responsibility to help educate our young people to learn how to drink responsibly and I hope that we have been able in a small way to do that. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Oh you’re so good aren’t you! 
TIM MACINDOE 
: And I may be abused by my colleague on my left but I believe it is an important issue. So I rise today to urge all members of this Committee to support Supplementary Order Paper 280 in my name which is designed to restore 20 years as the minimum age—[ 
Interruption 
] 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! [ 
Interruption 
] Order! 
TIM MACINDOE 
: Sorry Mr Chair I thought you were taking a point of order. It seeks to restore 20 years as the minimum age for all categories of liquor purchases in New Zealand and the overwhelming number of New Zealanders are urging us to do just that. 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. Earlier in the debate you advised a member from New Zealand First not to interject on another member on his flank. There is significant interjection coming from Tau Henare. There seems to be some bickering going on between Jackie Blue and Tau Henare and I just ask that you apply the same convention to the Government benches as you do to the Opposition benches. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I find it very difficult to interject from my seat because Tim Macindoe is sitting in my seat. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: All right. That is one all. I have not given out a yellow card yet. 
TIM MACINDOE 
: Inevitably today’s debate focuses on the age question because that is what this clause is all about but I am a huge fan of the Alcohol Reform Bill in totality. There is a vast array of measures in it. This is just one aspect but it is an important aspect because it is an important age group. It is a problem that of course as Kevin Hague has said is multifaceted and from which none of us is immune but it is no less important for that. On the contrary today’s focus on the widespread harm that alcohol abuse is causing our children our grandchildren our school pupils our tertiary students and our young people is one of the most crucial issues that we must confront. That harm is very real very disturbing and very dangerous. We cannot avoid it. 
This debate is not a matter of blaming young people for New Zealand’s binge drinking culture; it is about trying to protect them from it. It is not about restricting their rights; it is about enhancing the rights of those who love and care for them to guide them in safe and responsible choices as they move into the adult world. It is not about shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted; it is about ensuring the horse is able to return to the stable fit to run again after surviving its burst for liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 
I am as I have said a big fan of the Alcohol Reform Bill. I am particularly pleased with some of the Supplementary Order Papers that the Minister of Justice Judith Collins has recently advanced to strengthen the bill. They add emphasis— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: She didn’t strengthen the bill. She made it weaker. 
TIM MACINDOE 
: —particularly on parental responsibility which is directly related Ms Dalziel to the issue that we are debating today and that is why I mention them. They go hand in hand. We have to see all the measures as part of a package not each one on its own. But with the way this debate is structured today we are debating just one clause of it. 
 The  
New Zealand Herald  
has today summarised many of the issues well in its editorial but it has repeated the common mistake that we are talking about a drinking age. It is important to clarify for everybody listening that there is no such thing as a drinking age and there is no proposal to introduce one. It is a purchase age that we are talking about. Unfortunately the  
New Zealand Herald  
has reached an inadequate conclusion by making a bigger mistake and the big mistake it has made which I hope it will correct for its readers is that the Law Commission came down on the side of the split age option. 
It is true that in its initial report the Law Commission did recommend the split age proposal. Like the Law Commission when I first began considering this issue I too thought that the split age had a lot of merit. But like the Law Commission I have concluded on the basis of the evidence that there must be further moves than that. This change of position was set out clearly on page 258 of the final report which is this huge tome that I am holding. I hope as I say the  
New Zealand Herald  
will correct the mistake. I will reluctantly support the split age proposal today but only if my amendment is defeated.