The government has signed off on a plan to ease alcohol restrictions, pledging fewer hurdles for bars and bottle stores, as first revealed by RNZ earlier this month.
The proposed changes to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act would make it harder for people to block liquor licences and simpler for ministers to declare one-off special trading hours for pubs or clubs screening major sport or cultural events.
Speaking at Auckland’s Lula Inn on Thursday morning, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee said the shake-up was “careful and considered”, and designed to remove pointless or unhelpful barriers.
“It’s not about getting pissed,” she told reporters. “It’s about being able to operate good business.”
McKee said responsible drinkers should not be penalised because of the behaviour of a few: “Most people who drink alcohol do not have a problem with it.”
Under the reforms, only people from the local community would be able to object to new licence applications, while applicants would gain a formal right of reply.
Licensing committees would also be required to change a licence’s conditions when it came up for renewal under tougher Local Alcohol Policies, rather than rejecting it outright.
Addressing reporters, McKee denied she was shutting out the voice of national lobby groups, noting they could still utilise people in local communities.
Other changes included allowing wineries, breweries and distilleries to hold both on- and off-licences, and letting hairdressers and barbers serve small amounts of alcohol without a licence.
McKee said the changes also included harm reduction measures, including barring delivery services, like UberEats, from serving highly intoxicated buyers.
She said the law would also be updated to reflect the growth of zero- and low-alcohol products, allowing venues to stock a wider range of them
Asked about the existing penalties for supplying alcohol to minors, McKee said she considered them to be appropriate “at this stage”. She declined to comment on the disparity in maximum fines for offending businesses: just $10,000 for alcohol, $100,000 for vapes.
McKee also stressed that territorial authorities would retain all their current powers to regulate alcohol through local policies and licensing committees.
No change to opening hours
In early August, RNZ reported on a leaked Cabinet paper showing the minister had shifted the focus of her reforms away from some “harm reduction measures” and toward “reducing regulatory burden”.
In particular, McKee had dropped an earlier plan to restrict the hours bottle stores and supermarkets could sell alcohol to between 9am and 9pm.
An early version of McKee’s Cabinet paper pointed to a “strong correlation” between later opening hours and violent crime, and said Justice Ministry analysis suggested restricting hours could result in 2400 fewer violent victimisations a year.
Speaking on Thursday, McKee told RNZ she no longer had trust or confidence in that projection after having a closer look at the calculations.
She said the NZ Crime and Victim survey suggested the potential reduction would be closer to half-a-percent.
“That was a draft [Cabinet paper]. It was not a final and it was not written by me,” she said.
McKee confirmed that both the Justice Ministry and police were in favour of restricting hours, but she had sought to strike a balance.
Asked whose advice she relied on for her decision, she said she had spoken to “many, many people on both sides”.
Alcohol can currently be sold between 7am and 11pm, although Auckland and Christchurch have introduced tougher bylaws to ban sales after 9pm.
McKee said that gave her confidence local communities could manage such decisions themselves and did not require a “blanket rule for everybody”.
rnz.co.nz
