The Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Improving Alcohol Regulation) Amendment Bill aims to improve alcohol regulation and remove barriers to economic growth by amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act.

The bill would do so by strengthening some areas of the Act to minimise harm while also providing certainty around the licensing process to benefit both businesses and consumers. The bill proposes to do this by:

• ensuring objections to licensing applications come from local communities and allowing licence applicants a right of reply to objectors
• allowing hairdressers and barbers to supply small amounts of alcohol to customers without a licence
• allowing breweries, meaderies, and distilleries to hold both an on- and off-licence and to charge for samples
• enabling the Governor-General, on the advice of the responsible Minister, to declare stand-alone licence exemptions for clubs and on-licensed premises when televising significant events outside of usual trading hours
• clarifying responsibilities for rapid delivery services to reduce the risk of delivery to intoxicated and under-age people
• allowing club and on-licenced premises to stock zero-alcohol drinks instead of, or in addition to, low-alcohol drinks and licensed supermarkets and grocery stores to display and promote an area for zero-alcohol alternatives
• allowing restaurants that prepare and sell food products from retail sites on the same premises to apply for an off-licence in addition to an on-licence and allow clubs to hold either a club licence or an on-licence.

Tell the Justice Committee what you think

Make a submission on the bill by midnight on Thursday, 14 May 2026.

For more details about the bill:

• Read the full content of the bill
• What’s been said in Parliament about the bill?

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