O'Rourke DenisDENIS O'ROURKE (NZ First): New Zealand First is also very happy to continue to support this bill. We support the intent of the amendments to allow for low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beer wine and mead to be displayed in the single area of supermarkets. For those who are not aware of what the term means it is the area in a supermarket where alcohol can be sold and the intention of that is of course to limit shoppers' exposure to alcohol. The current situation is just plain silly. It is just plain silly for low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beer wine and mead products to not be permitted to be displayed in that single area simply because they do not fall within the definition of alcohol". Clause 5 which is really the crux of the bill is very sensible in that it will allow low-alcohol or non-alcoholic beer wine and mead to be displayed promoted and advertised within that single area.I would have to disagree a little with my colleague Steffan Browning who spoke previously about advertising. There is a need for some advertising in that single area so that people simply know what the products are. I do not see any difficulty with that. The threshold of course as to what is alcohol for these purposes and what is not is that to be low-alcohol the product needs to have less than 1.15 percent ethanol by weight. But that is not the real issue. The real issue is simply this: it is important that there be some discretion some flexibility for supermarkets as to where they can place those non-alcohol or low-alcohol products. That is effectively what the Justice and Electoral Committee has devoted its time and effort to and it has done a good job of tidying up the bill to make sure that that flexibility is there.It does make sense for these products to be placed in a single area because they are in fact marketed very much like alcoholic drinks and they are an increasingly popular alternative to the full-strength beers wines and mead that you see advertised and placed on the shelves for sale in supermarkets. We do need as a community to encourage people to drink those low-alcohol products by making their presence more obvious and by making it easier for people to find them on the supermarket shelves. That provides real choice for those people. As a relative teetotaller in that I probably do on a gallon for gallon basis drink more tea than whisky I do approve of that choice. I think many people would say the same. Let people have a choice when they go into the supermarket as to what they would prefer to drink. This is just sensible stuff which I know we all support. On the serious side we in New Zealand First do think that a lot more needs to be done to reduce alcohol consumption in New Zealand. I know that is outside the scope of this bill so suffice it to say that we think this Government will go down as one that really has not done enough to push back against the tide of increased alcohol consumption especially by young people in New Zealand. We were critical of the main legislation passed 3 years ago in that we think it did not go far enough to achieve those ends. However this is sensible stuff as far as it goes and it does not go very far. We do support it simply because it does provide choice and it will mean people will have an easy opportunity to choose non-alcohol or low-alcohol products if like me they tend to be relative teetotallers. If that is the case—and we know it is—New Zealand First will continue to be very happy to support this bill."