PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday April 20, 2010

Law Commission Report on Liquor to be tabled in Parliament

The Law Commission’s final report on the Review of the Regulatory Framework for the Sale and Supply of Liquor will be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday April 27th.

The report will remain embargoed until after tabling. It will then be published on the Law Commission’s website, www.lawcom.govt.nz. It will also be possible to download the extracted summary of the final report and a separate Submissions Analysis of the 2,939 public submissions on this project.

A limited number of hard copies of the final report will also be available from the Law Commission for $30 plus postage. Any organisation or individual wishing to order a hard copy of the report should email bvanheezik@lawcom.govt.nz with their details.

ENDS

Review of the Sale of Liquor Act 1989

Terms of reference

(1) To examine and evaluate the current laws and policies relating to the sale, supply and consumption of liquor in New Zealand.

(2) To consider and formulate for the consideration of Government and Parliament a revised policy framework covering the principles that should regulate the sale, supply and consumption of liquor in New Zealand having regard to present and future social conditions and needs.

(3) To deal explicitly with a number of issues, including:
• the proliferation of specific outlets and the effect this has on consumption;
• how the licensing system should be structured and who should be responsible for which aspects of licensing decisions;
• revising the licence renewal and fee framework to consider whether risk can be more appropriately managed and to ensure that the funding of the licensing and enforcement regime is adequate;
• to ensure that unnecessary and disproportionate compliance costs are not imposed by the licensing system;
• the age at which liquor can be purchased;
• the responsibility of parents for supervising young members of their family who drink;
• the influence of excise tax on alcohol and how pricing policies can minimise harm from alcohol consumption;
• advertising of liquor and whether there should be restrictions on discounting alcohol or advertising discounts;
• the relationship between the Sale of Liquor Act 1989, the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Local Government Act 2001;
• the relationship between the Sale of Liquor Act 1989 and the liquorrelated offences in the Summary Offences Act 1981;
• the application of competition law to the sale of liquor;
• the need to ensure the appropriate balance between harm and consumer benefit;
• the health effects of alcohol use and the ways to ameliorate these adverse effects;
• the effects of alcohol use on the level of offending in the community and consideration of measures to minimise such offending; and
• enforcement issues in relation to liquor, including penalties, bans, measures to control alcohol related disorder and to deal with intoxicated people, and methods for preventing the use of fake proof-of-age identification.

(4) To prepare an issues paper for publication and take submissions on it, and to engage in extensive public consultation (5) To prepare a final report, including the proposed new policy framework and draft legislation, so that people can judge accurately the precise effects of what is proposed.

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