McKee NicoleSALE AND SUPPLY OF ALCOHOL (CELLAR DOOR TASTING) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed from 26 July.NICOLE McKEE (ACT): Mālō e lelei Madam Speaker. I stand to speak to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Cellar Door Tasting) Amendment Bill. I would like to begin by congratulating the member Stuart Smith of Kaikōura for getting his bill pulled from the ballot box and for having such a good bill that ACT are really looking forward to supporting it along its journey. I note that I may be speech number three but we already have one of the chardonnay socialists from across the other side of the House agree with the bill and hopefully we'll get more on board with this one the cellar door tasting bill. You know this is about where multiple bottles of wine are opened for shot tasting usually at about 30 millilitres per shot and they hope that they can sell enough to be able to compensate for the free tasting. Being a consumer I was initially confused with the debate that was had the other day about on-licence and off-licence requirements. As a consumer you know I just rock on up to the wineries and go about having the tasting without really thinking about what effect it may have on cost for those wineries. As Stuart Smith had actually pointed out there's over 600 small wineries around New Zealand. In fact I think he even went about to tell us there were 28 within electorates that obviously need supporting and I thought that was very well done. Stuart Smith actually gave MPs a big list of all of those electorates and I think that those that operate their businesses would appreciate that he's actually pointed out to the members that they represent who they are. I'd never actually thought about the legal requirements of the winery at the cellar door and the licensing requirements and on-licences that were needed for the sale and consumption of alcohol on premises. So that's for hotels it's for pubs nightclubs and restaurants—they all have the on-licence. But an off-licence is for selling for the consumption at a different place. So that's where the bottle shops the supermarkets and the grocery stores come in. So I could see the confusion when we were looking at what's actually happening at the cellar-door wine tasting experiences. The wineries need an off-licence to sell their wine to consumers in order to take them home and they give away their wine in those 30 millilitre lots for tasting because they don't have an on-licence in which to sell it. Further to that it appears that the off-licence is only available under limited circumstances with certain requirements needing to be met. I got confused just trying to get my head around what those requirements were and when you need the on-licence when you need the off-licence and what cancels one or the other out. So good on you Stuart Smith for looking to cut the red tape and the regulation and for looking to bring back common sense for small businesses. Good on you also Stuart Smith for looking at ways to cut the financial waste from those small to medium enterprises' pockets because ACT can also support that too. We've heard from the member that the wine growers have a $2.41 billion industry. This is substantial. How do we help it to grow? We support the businesses to grow it. Wine is New Zealand's sixth-largest export product after all. So ACT agrees with the member's bill where he defines samples as needing to be at 40 millilitres. It means there are 18 samples out of a 750 millilitre bottle and charging for those samples will help the SMEs—or small to medium sized enterprises—to recoup their expenses. Good host responsibility is an essential part of any alcohol bill and it's there within this bill. The person serving these tests or tastings still need to be a duty manager and they still need to abide by the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act. Again with over 600 small wineries around New Zealand many of which have been hit with the adverse weather events this is a good way of being able to support them to boost their business. But there is one aspect that I've already been lobbied about and it's whether or not we could bring certain distilleries or craft breweries into this as well for wine tasting. Perhaps that's an aspect that we could speak about at the Justice Committee table. So we support this bill and we thank Stuart Smith for looking at ways to cut red tape and support our businesses so they too can thrive in New Zealand. Thank you Madam Speaker.