'Wasted ' - Alcohol Advisory Council Amendment Bill: Te Ururoa Flavell

I am told that today’s Christchurch Press has all the reasons why we need to amend the Alcohol Advisory Council Act in relation to the levy imposed on all alcoholic beverages manufactured in, or imported into, Aotearoa

 

A study of 12,000 young people found the onset of drinking "goes up very steeply from age 12, and that children as young as age four are trying alcohol”.

 

Four years old for goodness sake. It seems child’s play extends to having a glug – liquor meant for adult lips.

In response to these shocking headlines, Tuari Potiki, spokesperson for the Alcohol Advisory Council confirmed that the age at which people first drank had been steadily decreasing.

This is not just an isolated headline; a one off story.

In any weekend, in any town in this nation, we would find our young people drinking to drunkenness; to a level where they describe themselves as "wasted". That’s what it is called – wasted.

Wasted potential. It is outrageous that alcohol and drugs are involved to such a large extent in youth crisis situations. The lowered purchasing age, and the prevailing attitude of a society that associates alcohol with fun and freedom, is having an impact on our communities and the Maori Party says we must instigate strategies to address matters to do with getting wasted.

The negative consequences associated with under-age drinking, especially the pattern of heavy binge drinking that many minors engage in, are substantial.

The Maori Party has always suggested that should be a variety of strategies, both legislative and non-legislative to reduce the overall supply of alcohol to young people to limit their drinking and its associated harms.

 

We know that to stem the tide on this desperate problem of binge drinking by young people, we cannot put up ad hoc proposals in isolation from the overall drinking culture of the nation.

 

And so this Bill is a step in the right direction, in terms of putting in place different approaches to address those who have the responsibility of purchasing and supplying alcohol to our young people.

The Bill proposes to calculate the levy for each product according to an alcohol classification band system, similar to the approach used by NZ Customs Service to collect alcohol excise and excise-equivalent duty.

A dollar amount per litre would be set according to a beverage’s alcohol content or deemed alcohol content. Those with a higher alcohol content will contribute a higher proportion to the levy.

It is not a quick-fix, one-stop catch all to the issues I have touched on to improve industry compliance and responsibility; to put the focus squarely at the feet of the alcohol barons; the alcohol industry.

In many ways it is just tidying up the regulations, making the new system easier to operate.

Five years ago, a 2004 Ministry of Health review of the levy-setting mechanisms found that the way the levy is calculated and apportioned is outdated and overly complex.

 

The Levy calculation system used to be very complex – some was calculated by volume (litres), and some alcohol by volume (that is the percentage of alcohol per litre of beverage).

 

So the purpose of this legislative amendment is to get it all calculated on the basis of alcohol by volume to achieve a standard measure and a consistent approach applied across all alcoholic beverages. What is good for wine, cider and mead will be good for beer and spirits - - it’s not about the brand that we’re drinking but the amount of alcoholic content we are consuming.

These changes are all for the good.

 

In essence, the changes will ensure that alcoholic beverages with a higher volume of alcohol will contribute a higher proportion to the levy.

 

But it does little to address the four olds replacing fresh-up with Lion Red.

 

It does little to address the fact that young people are more than twice as likely to suffer from alcohol-related harms as other age groups.

 

We know the issues are overwhelming.

 

The drinking behaviour of young people is all too frequently ending in road trauma, violence, depression, suicide, disrupted relationships, high risk sexual activity, delinquent behaviour, decreased productivity at work, increased absenteeism and educational failure.

 

Updating and simplifying the current mechanisms for setting the Alcohol Advisory Council levy won’t solve this raft of problems. They are not problems which will be addressed by one solution.

 

They require a multi-faceted, multi-pronged, holistic approach.

 

ALAC themselves have plenty more ideas to share with the House, if we are truly committed to doing something around the complex problems associated with alcohol misuse and abuse.

 

ALAC itself, was established over three decades ago in 1976 following a report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the sale of liquor. That Commission recommended establishing a permanent council whose aim was to encourage responsible use of alcohol and minimise its misuse.

 

And so it has come to pass.

 

ALAC’s key objective in all of its activities is to promote moderation in the use of alcohol, discourage and reduce the misuse of alcohol and minimise harm resulting from the misuse of alcohol.

 

The amendments recommended by the Health Committee, and the new system of alcohol classification bands may have some impact, we hope, on the range of alcoholic beverages manufactured in or imported into Aotearoa.

 

As we understand it, the revised levy-setting provisions for the ALAC levy won’t necessarily affect the price that consumers currently pay for alcoholic beverages.

 

But these changes may influence the proportion that each type of alcoholic beverage contributes towards the ALAC levy.

 

We will be interested to hear from the Minister, as to exactly what impact – and the scale of the impact – we can expect from the changes to be introduced today.

 

We intend to continue to talk of the impact that alcohol abuse is having on our communities, along with the P epidemic and smoking.

 

We believe that significant changes are needed to the Sale of Liquor Act.

 

That Act has a predominantly business focus where alcohol is a mere commodity to be bought and sold.

 

It is our firm belief in the Maori Party that the Act needs an increased public health focus and a focus on reducing alcohol related harms – that is addressing the range of physical and sexual violence, accidents, crime, arrest factors that have been mentioned before.

 

We note the statement from the Minister of Justice, that connects alcohol to the rising tide of crime – and we would go further and suggest that addressing alcohol misuse must go across all sectors, all portfolios, all age groups.

 

We in the Maori Party will support the changes to the proposed regime.

 

But we signal our concern about so many other issues such as the excess quantities of alcohol being consumed by our young people.

 

We know that fixing the levy is but a partial solution.

 

Real solutions are likely to be most effective when co-ordinated at multiple levels in society.

 

Real solutions will involve stakeholders at all levels.

 

And most of all, real solutions that involve our families; that engage our whanau.

 

We will support this Bill at its second reading, and look forward to a prompt and effective hearing of the wider issues in front of the House.