Spirits NZ Welcomes Changes To Alcohol Rules

Amendments to Alcohol Rules Welcomed
More to do to Fix “Broken” Act However

Spirits New Zealand welcomes the announcement today of proposed changes to alcohol law but says there is more that could be done to continue to bring back a common sense approach to licensing rules.

“We acknowledge and welcome the release of details of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Improving Alcohol Regulation) Amendment Bill as it seeks to address some key areas of concern and bring back a pragmatic approach to alcohol regulation,” says Spirits NZ CEO, Robert Brewer. 

“However, we are aware that although the proposed Bill makes great strides in acknowledging the need to reduce harmful drinking at the same time as not over engineering licensing processes there is still some way to go in this regard,” says Robert. 

“In fact we believe, in terms of the original purpose of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, the sections relating to licensing and the role of District Licence Committees are virtually broken,” he says. 

“We supported the initial thrust of the Act when it delegated responsibility for alcohol licensing to local communities.  Unfortunately over time this has caused a dislocation of intent and instead of getting nationally consistent application of licensing regulations, both on and off premises are faced with piecemeal and inconsistent approaches from licensing authorities. 

“This is not the fault of the authorities themselves but is more a reflection of an out of date and out of step set of rules that do not acknowledge any difference between “good” and “bad” licence holders and business operators.” 

Brewer says this is easily remedied by, firstly, reducing the number of District Licencing Committees to promote more national consistency and then establishing a set of operational criteria defining a “good” licenced operation and then enshrining these criteria in regulation. 

“In this way we reduce the administrative burden on Councils, Licencing Inspectors, Police and business and promote better trading practices thus supporting harm reduction,” says Robert.

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