Borrows Chester: Sale of Liquor (Youth Alcohol Harm Reduction: Purchase Age) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Borrows Chester: Sale of Liquor (Youth Alcohol Harm Reduction: Purchase Age) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6341] 
CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 I appreciate the opportunity to speak in respect of this bill having spent about 11 months on the Law and Order Committee and listened to the submissions to it. The point I make is that I believe that this bill should proceed through the House tonight so I will be voting for it. I believe that the public want us to debate seriously the amendments that have been offered by Dr Mapp in respect of the split age and to consider fully whether that age should go up or stay exactly where it is. 
My history in respect of dealing with young people who are the worse for alcohol goes back a long way and it is not surprising I suppose that I take a conservative approach. I will be supporting Dr Mapp’s bill to split the age and the reason is fairly simple. Eighteen-year-olds who are drinking in hotels are drinking in an environment where they are supervised not only by the bar staff the people on the door and the licensee in the background who runs the risk of losing his or her licence—and therefore income—if he or she stuffs it up but also by the other patrons drinking within the hotel. My experience is that there is actually very little problem with 18-year-olds drinking in hotels. They tend to remain sober—although some of them do not and they get turfed out or are taken home. Frequently a courtesy coach is available. If little scraps and scuffles do start they are not as dangerous do not last as long and settle down pretty quickly. 
If we then look at young people who drink in unsupervised areas we find that they tend to drink with people who are younger than themselves. They drink in public or private places. They tend to get trashed quicker. They drink less reasonably—hoses on the end of funnels boat races and all the rest of those things that some people may have considered fun in the old days but that have led to a hell of a lot of misery over time. No one is watching and no one is making sure that people are drinking safely. I guess my experience is that I have seen too many pissed young people raped young people assaulted young people drunk young people who fall off things and hurt themselves and young people who start fights that lead to more serious events. 
The comment we keep hearing time and time again is that this bill will not work. Quite honestly I ask which single bill or which single piece of legislation actually works 100 percent of the time for 100 percent of participants in the community. The Minister of Corrections referred to the consumption of marijuana. Well we have a law against smoking cannabis. Does it work? Some would say no. Does it dissuade some people from smoking cannabis? Yes it probably does but other strategies such as education about the health risks and the future risks work as much as the criminality involved in getting caught smoking cannabis. What a surprise; that is exactly what will happen with this bill. 
If this legislation passes and the drinking age is put up from 18 or if Mr Mapp’s amendment goes through and people who are 18 can drink in hotels and people who are purchasing from off-licences have to wait until they are 20 will that solve all the problems? No it will not. I wonder whether each member of this House can imagine themselves in the glare and the spotlight of public scrutiny when someone shoves a microphone in front of his or her mouth and asks: “Would you vote for something that would solve 10 percent of the problem or 20 percent of the problem?”. If we accept that this legislation is not a one-hit wonder—that in actual fact to change the drinking culture in New Zealand we have to take a number of different initiatives and this is just one—then I challenge that member to say into that microphone under that glare of public scrutiny: “No stuff ya. I won’t pass legislation that will fix even 10 percent of this problem.”