Harawira Hone: Alcohol Advisory Council Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: Alcohol Advisory Council Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14561] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Madam Speaker. Tena tatou katoa e te Whare. Hoino hakoa e rere ke ana taku mahi ki nga tikanga o te Whare nei e tika ana kia tu ahau i tenei wa hei reo mo te Pati Maori kia mihi atu ki to tatou tuahine a Louisa katahi ano kua uru mai ki roto i te Whare. Te mihi ano hoki ki tona whanau kua tae mai hei tautoko me te mihi ano hoki ki to matou tuahine a Georgina Beyer kua hoki mai ki te Whare. No reira tena koutou tena koutou kia ora tatou katoa. 
Although it is a little out of line with protocol I would like to take the opportunity on behalf of the Maori Party to welcome our sister Louisa to the House. We welcome her whanau who have come to tautoko her on this day and we also welcome our sister Georgina Beyer who has come back to the House for this occasion. Tena koe Georgina. Tena tatou katoa. 
Last August I was out on night patrol around the town camps outside of Alice Springs with the Aboriginal equivalent of the Maori wardens—people who have no police powers but are dedicated to helping whanau trying to help themselves. It was a sobering night in many respects: it was sobering to see the commitment and the patience of the night patrol it was sobering to know that these patrols and other initiatives were going to be disbanded under the racist Australian Northern Territory intervention plan and it was sobering to see the extent of alcoholism in indigenous communities. Although I have done the serious “party hardy” scene all over the country in my day I can tell members that I have never ever seen the level of alcohol abuse I saw that night on night patrol. It blew me away and it also opened my eyes to the way in which we are not dealing with alcoholism in this country. That includes this bill—good bill though it is—to amend the Alcohol Advisory Council Act 1976. 
It is important that we as parliamentarians know that while we pitter-patter around the periphery of the problem of alcohol abuse with bills like this—we have already passed legislation to allow the sale of alcohol in supermarkets and the sale of alcopops to teenage kids and we have extended the opening hours of clubs and bars—we leave our poorer communities to deal with the trauma of the drunkenness the assaults the alcoholism the poorhouses the night patrols the soup kitchens the health problems the domestic violence and all the needless tangihanga. It is all fuelled by easy access to alcohol. Those liquor and alcohol outlets that we have sanctioned drain poor families suck out desperately needed food money and profit from the addictions of the poor. 
So today we come here to consider how best to support the Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC) in its job of encouraging the responsible use of alcohol and minimising its misuse. That has to be a good thing. ALAC has been around for about 30 years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Sale of Liquor. It has battled through the time since the Sale of Liquor Act 1989 deregulated the liquor industry increased trade flexibility removed restrictions on drinking alcohol and relaxed the sale and supply of alcohol all of which led naturally to greater consumption and abuse of alcohol. ALAC knows more than anyone the effects of alcohol consumption so when it calls for resources to deal with alcohol abuse in Maori society the Maori Party hears what it is saying. When ALAC calls for research on the impact of alcohol and liquor advertising on Polynesians we hear that call too. 
Today’s bill aims to provide ALAC with levies based on the level of alcohol in drinks which will enable it to continue with its work. Fifty percent of all 12 to 17-year-olds in Aotearoa—Maori Pakeha whatever—are boozing it up big time. This is a horrific statistic that we simply cannot ignore any longer. While surveys tell us that non-Maori kids drink more often they also tell us that Maori kids binge drink at two and a half times the rate of non-Maori. It is these kinds of statistics and these scenarios that challenge us in this House to take responsibility for the health of our nation’s future just like Sir Apirana Ngata did. He was petitioned by Ngati Porou women to use his parliamentary powers to stop the further sale of alcohol on the East Coast which unfortunately and unwittingly gave rise to the great haka “Poropeihana” opposing the prohibition of alcohol. Yet here we are nearly a century later still trying to deal with the destructive effects of alcohol in Maori communities. 
While we support this bill our greater interest is still in the changes we need in legislation to deal with alcohol abuse. More than half of all teenagers who binge drink say they get their alcohol from their parents and there are no adults around when these teenagers are getting off their faces. Maybe we should be expending less effort on banging the kids and more on sorting out the parents by focusing on efforts to turn whanau round by giving them positive options in life such as a decent education decent housing decent kai and a job rather than more police more laws more jails and more misery. Parliament can set an example by cutting back on alcohol at its own functions and by MPs being better role models than those dickheads who get drunk down town and make fools of themselves in public. 
Anyone who goes out on night patrol with the cops in Aotearoa will see cells filling up with over-intoxicated drunk people every weekend as if the police do not have better things to do with themselves! How many tangi could we prevent if we took a harder line on alcohol abuse? How many fights court referrals court cases and convictions? How much community detention preventive detention home detention and jail? These are the questions we need to consider and the targets we should be setting ourselves to reach. Yet we sit here and kid ourselves that we are serious about dealing with these issues while we allow the liquor industry to continue to promote its mind-bending products on national television for heaven’s sake. I am nobody’s hero but I do take pride in being a non-drinker a non-smoker and drug-free. I know that Maori people respect those who walk their talk. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: You’re a saint! 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Thank you very much. I also know that 60 percent of Maori inmates point to drugs and alcohol as major factors in their offending. There is a lot we need to do. We need research to back up our fight against alcohol abuse but not too much research—there is heaps of it around already. We need to put restrictions on the availability of alcohol. We need to put the brakes on binge drinking. We need more focus on education sport and culture and we need to put more real energy into giving people positive life choices instead of the dead-end lifestyle that sees us lose 22000 people every year to Australia. Alcohol is still the most damaging drug in our society bar none. It is scary enough knowing that from the time one turns 18 it is legal but the really frightening thing is that 50 percent of our kids are already into it before they even make that 18th birthday. We here in this House have the power to change that; the question is whether we have the courage. Tena koe Madam Speaker. Kia ora tatou e te Whare. 
Debate interrupted.