Davis Kelvin: Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill — In Committee 
Davis Kelvin: Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:668;Page:15104] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 I agree with the member Jacqui Dean that the stakes are high here in terms of alcohol and the Rugby World Cup. We need to strike the right balance to make sure that our image as a country that can go to sports games and not get carried away with alcohol is intact. But we cannot be prudes because alcohol like it or not is a big part of the whole tourism deal. A lot of rugby supporters will be coming here next year for the Rugby World Cup and drinking will be part of that. We have to find the right balance between having a great time and getting carried away with the drinking. 
I suggest that amongst all the hysteria of what happened at Eden Park on Saturday there was a bit of a perfect storm in terms of the conditions. One of those conditions was the lack of policing of people who brought alcohol to the park. We saw the news reports of people carrying boxes of bottles of beer and preloading on the way in. I suggest that the phenomenon of preloading that we see now whereby people drink cheap alcohol before going to events could possibly have occurred because of the cost of the alcohol being sold at Eden Park. I have also heard—and I do not know whether this is true—that because of the queues people had to buy a minimum of four containers of alcohol at one time. I have been told that we could not afford to have one person buying one bottle of beer so people had to buy a minimum of four containers of alcohol to take back for their mates to reduce the queuing time. 
I go back to the perfect storm. Two games were being played which will not happen at the Rugby World Cup. To be honest most people would not have been going to Eden Park to watch the first game which was the curtain-raiser between Papua New Guinea and England. They would not have cared about the result; they knew that England would give Papua New Guinea a hiding. They would have been sitting there drinking and enjoying the occasion—again to excess filling up before the main game. Then of course with the main game everyone was hyped up and ready for a great contest and quite frankly it was a dud. The Kiwis were shocking. The frustration in the crowd built so they were drinking and getting amped up. When crowds are frustrated and bored they start the Mexican wave which was part of the condition when we saw plastic beer bottles chips and the like being thrown. It was a bit of a perfect storm and that storm will not occur at the Rugby World Cup. There will be one game at a time a venue and as a colleague has already mentioned people will be there for the rugby and not for the drinking per se. 
I want to touch on the fact that Heineken wants its product to be sold in cans. I think that is ridiculous and it brings me to clause 62. Clause 62(1)(b) states: “(ii) any conditions that he or she considers should be imposed on the licence.” Also clause 62(1) states that when: “… the persons referred to in section 60(6) receive an application from the administrative secretariat each must—(a) inquire into the application; and (b) report to the Authority in the form and manner prescribed by regulations”—just moving on quickly—“…(i) whether there is any matter on which he or she opposes the application: (ii) any conditions that he or she considers should be imposed on the licence.” I think that if conditions are imposed on the licence such as that alcohol should not be served in cans it is important that the Minister for the Rugby World Cup does not have the right to override that. We have been arguing from the start of the consideration of this bill that it gives the Minister unfettered powers to override decisions of the Rugby World Cup Authority. If a company came in and insisted that its product be sold in a certain way and the authority believes that that is inappropriate this bill should not give the Minister the right to override that decision. 
Again we need to make sure that we are not prudes. We do not want people to come here and say that there are too many restrictions on the drinking of alcohol but we have to strike a balance so we do not have people getting carried away.