Brownlee Gerry: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
Brownlee Gerry: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:608;Page:5405] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (NZ National—Ilam) 
: 
 We are now debating the commencement clause. I want to ask a simple question that I hope the Minister might answer. What are the companies that produce the spirits in New Zealand supposed to charge tomorrow morning for orders that they receive on that day? What are they supposed to charge for those orders? 
Further I would like to get some assurance particularly from officials that with all the schedules that are to disappear later in the bill they have not done something in there that defeats the purpose of the bill. That purpose is pretty clear. It is to catch all alcoholic beverages of between 14 percent and 23 percent alcohol by volume for which the duty is currently about $21 a litre and to move them into the $39-a-litre bracket. We have been told some of the products that are supposed to be caught by this tax hike. Can the officials give the Committee via their Minister an absolute assurance that they have not left anything out that they have not made a mistake and that this legislation is not something that will be embarrassing for them some time down the track? 
Simon Power 
: Go on tell us. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: No I will not say. It is not for me to do the work of the officials. They have enough time between now and the third reading to go back through the bill and to comb through all those code numbers and tariff numbers to make sure they have not left one out. I am thinking that perhaps I should tell them what it is but I will not. 
Hon Members 
: Go on! 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I will not. I am not an official; I am not as clever as that. However I think I have spotted something and it will be a lot of fun tomorrow. 
Do members remember the last time that the Government tried to ram through something like this and it made the whole of New Zealand a dry area? Leading up to the holidays a couple of years ago it made the whole of New Zealand a dry area. I think it has done something similar again. This time it has wetted the country up big time. Again the question for the officials is whether they can give an assurance via the Minister that there is no mistake in the bill that nothing is left out and that there is no contradiction between the purpose clause and the requirements in the first part of the bill. Can they give us an assurance that all aspects of the explanatory note are covered by the bill? 
In the short time we have had to look at this bill I have dived into it a bit. I could be wrong but— 
Opposition Members 
: Never. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: No no I am happy to say I could be wrong. But Mr Anderton will not say he was wrong. He gave an appalling speech at the commencement of the first reading and got things completely wrong but he will not admit it. I am happy to say I may be wrong. However I would like to say I am right—after the bill is passed. Then we will have a great deal of fun. 
I would like to know what is meant by clauses 5 and 6 becoming effective some days after the bill receives the royal assent. I simply ask the Minister why that is. 
John Carter 
: Is that what’s wrong with it? 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: No. But I guess one might say there is a bit of breathing space there for the Government. I have asked those simple questions and I will repeat them so that the  
Hansard 
 record is full of them. First have the officials closed everything off—have they got everything lined up with nothing missing—and second why do clauses 5 and 6 come into effect much later than the rest of the bill? 
Finally when clause 3(b) states that the purpose of this legislation is “to increase the rates of excise duty and excise-equivalent duty payable on alcoholic beverages in line with the preceding 12 months’ movement in the Consumers Price Index All Groups excluding credit services.” what does that mean? 
John Key 
: A good question. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: That is a great question. I have learnt that question from Winston Peters—the only difference between us is that he asks it a lot more than I do and he asks it with a great deal more speed to his question.