Mark Ron: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
Mark Ron: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:608;Page:5414] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I am moved to take a call after Paul Adams’ speech. I cannot see Paul Adams now but he gave a very spirited speech that attemped to justify in some way the United Future party’s position in supporting this bill. The only thing he has done is to demonstrate to the Committee that he clearly does not know anything about the bill. He has given us a great speech about fathers’ liquor cabinets. If he sincerely believes that not allowing young people to get alcohol is the way to deal with the problems of teenage drinking that the United Future member Judy Turner spoke so strongly about and used as the reason that this bill had to be passed then maybe he is telling the Committee that he wants to see a tax on fathers’ liquor cabinets or something. I do not know whether he is saying that. Maybe fathers should just lock their liquor cabinets. 
Paul Adams gave us a great lecture about how the real way to solve the problem of teenage drinking is to educate young people. I have only one question for him. If that is what he believes—that the way to address the teenage drinking problem is to educate teenagers—why is he voting for this bill? In his own words this bill will not do that. This bill is not about education. The title is not “The Teenage Education to Correct Their Drinking Habits Bill”. That is not the title. The title should be the “Tax Grab on Behalf of Labour (Sponsored by Jim Anderton) Bill”. That should be the title. 
Paul Adams loves to play the heartstrings. I am sick of hearing those socialist MPs playing the heartstrings on the subject of drinking. That will bite some of them right on the backside because it comes across as terribly insincere. Why is it insincere? It is because the very drinks that they refer to in their speeches—and boy I will copy those  
Hansards 
 off and mail them out—as being a problem for teenage drinking and the very drinks mentioned at the beginning of the explanatory note of the bill are the ready-to-drink mixes that are not covered by the bill at all. It is a lie it is deceptive it is misleading it is incorrect it is wrong and it is inappropriate to tell the public—and to come into this Chamber I say to Mr Adams—that one is voting for this bill because it will stop teenagers from drinking the ready-to-drink mixes. This legislation will not do that. Therefore if it will not do that why are the Government members—and the United Future members in particular—voting for this bill? 
In his speech Mr Adams has given us every reason to expect that he will vote against the bill.But no the real truth is that the poodle has rolled over sat up and begged and is now playing dead to the tune of Mr Anderton who clearly does not understand that the drinks he is worried about are not covered by the bill and to the tune of other people in the Labour Party who do not have the foggiest clue about what they are doing. 
If we accept all that—and we do—then we must ask ourselves what the aim of this bill is. We can come to only one conclusion: it is about revenue gathering. It is not about hitting the Chardonnay-sipping spa-bath socialists’ pockets because the Chardonnay they sip is not covered by this bill. It is not about hitting students at university who really want to lay into a slab of beer over a game of rugby and then to go out and buy another slab afterwards. A slab of beer with its 4 percent alcohol is not covered by this bill. This bill targets people at the top end of the income scale who drink port and Madeira. Here is one of the great ironies: this bill targets officers of the New Zealand Defence Force. Just the other day this Government was patting itself on the back for giving defence personnel a pay rise. The Government now says that $12 million is going out to them but by the way all the port that they drink in the officers’ mess will go up a whack. The Government will scrape back $18 million out of the pockets of defence personnel because really at the end of the day it thinks they are just a bunch of horrible capitalists who only drink flash drinks that the Chardonnay-sipping spa-bath socialists do not like. In fact the Government wants their money in order to carry on its beneficiary binge.