Alcohol Reform Bill
Government Bill

As reported from the Justice and Electoral Committee

Commentary

Recommendation

The Justice and Electoral Committee has examined the Alcohol Reform Bill and recommends that it be passed with the amendments shown.

Introduction

This bill seeks to implement the Government’s response to the Law Commission’s 2010 report, Alcohol in Our Lives: Curbing the Harm. Alcohol has been recognised as the cause of significant social and health-related harm, and is implicated in 30 percent of all policerecorded offences, 34 percent of recorded family violence, and 50 percent of all homicides. ACC estimates that almost a quarter of all claims are alcohol-related, as are up to 70 percent of emergency department presentations for injury.

This bill has five policy objectives:

• to reduce excessive drinking by adults and young people
• to reduce the harm caused by alcohol use, including crime, disorder, public nuisance, and negative public health outcomes
• to support the safe and responsible sale, supply and consumption of alcohol
• to improve community input into local alcohol licensing decisions
• to improve the operation of the alcohol licensing system.

The bill is intended to repeal and replace the Sale of Liquor Act 1989, and amend the Summary Offences Act 1981, the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989, and the Local Government Act 2002.

The key measures proposed in the bill would affect the licensing system, the legal alcohol purchase age, the supply of alcohol to under 18-year-olds by parents or guardians, the promotion of alcohol, the consumption of alcohol in public places, the controls on alcoholic products, and the way alcohol-related offences are enforced.

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[Full report: DBSCH_SCR_5277_AlcoholReformBill2362_8557_1.pdf]

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