Given that the alcohol legislation about to be passed will give councils the power to create local alcohol plans, what measures do you support to reduce heavy drinking culture, in terms of reducing availability and density.
The current high social and economic costs of alcohol related harm (4.7 billion per year) as discussed in the Law Commission report can be reduced by effective alcohol policies and set at a local level change is possible. Two in ever five NZers are seriously affected by the one in five who drink heavily, so this is not just a matter of a few people or a small matter when the tax payers and ratepayers costs are concerned. What about a vomit tax for bars where mess is created outside or park clean up tax for premises serving take away liquor after 10pm? These can be part of licensing conditions set by local authorities.
What efforts do you support for change in these matters?
Anna-Marie
Candidate Answers
Candidate
Answer
I am in general support of the recommendations made by the Royal Commission, and I also support the initiatives taken on this subject by the Whangaparaoa Anglican chucrh.
I think we have enough legislation in place for responsible hosts who serve alcohol and the problem lies with education to the drinkers.
I do think that we should come down heavy on fines to anyone who breaks the law as far as serving alchohol to minors and also when anyone is intoxicated. I also agree that we should monitor the number of outlets selling liqour in an area.
Hi Anna-Marie
What a wide-ranging question! I totally agree that things have to change - for the better of smaller communities especially. I feel that it is very important that local people make the decisions and impose conditions as they should be in touch and have loacal knowledge of such issues as you raise.
I am very much in favour of limiting the number of outlets and imposing restrictions, but the key is enforcement - there\'s no point having rules that are easy to break. I would not be averse to charging an enforcement fee as part of a licensing charge. Each area needs a strategy for their own community and I will look forwrad to being part of the process.
Just as an aside, I was one of the initiators of the CARS - Community Alcohol Responsibility Scheme - on the North Shore in the early 1990s where we concentrated on host responsibility and ran some very worthwhile educational programmes in partnership with the Police.
Kia ora Anna-Marie,
Thank you for your interest in this important local government issue. The idea of a \'vomit tax\' is a nice touch. It may not work in practice but a good thought.
I have worked hard on this issue as a policy maker at North Shore Council and commissioned research, organised public lectures and so on. When working at Rodney Council I pushed through liquor bans on the beaches of the Hibiscus Coast and this led to an immediate 90% reduction in disorderly behaviour.
However, the punitive approach has limitations. Placing more and more conditions on bar owners is enticing but may not work. We may even achieve more by rewarding the better practice of some bars in some way, possibly with a certification system that allows better bars to advertise that they are \'safe\' or even \'family-friendly\' in some way
Much of the problem is cheap liquor outlets, including supermarkets, easy access to alcohol in the home and \'pre-loading\' by drinkers. Also the law is quite specific in that it is an offence to serve an intoxicated person. It is not enforced.
My understanding is that the police are currently over-run by the problems they face over the weekends, almost all of them alcohol-related. Auckland central resembles a battle-zone & shows why all night opening with lots of off-premises is a bad idea.
Increasing the cost of alcohol has been shown by research to be more effective than most other measures, especially for younger drinkers. The power for local authorities to restrict the proliferation of off premises is important to the look and feel of neighbourhoods, but unlikely to have much of an impact on problem drinking (which you rightly point out is common). Taking alcohol out of food shops, supermarkets in particular, is likely to be more effective. But price is the number one tool.
I could go on but I trust this gives you a flavour of where I stand on these issues. I will find effective and innovative solutions.
Kind regards,
Neil
09 4268174
