Alcohol reforms. Real local community control or just another hospital pass?

The Kiwi Party
Press Release
26 August, 2010

"The announced proposals by the government for reform of alcohol licensing laws to enable local communities to decide for themselves sound like a positive step," said Kiwi Party leader Larry Baldock. "However the problem will be in a number of details that are as yet unknown.

"Past experience, unfortunately, tends to warn us that this could be just another 'hospital pass' from central government to local government.

"Firstly, will the local council decision makers actually listen to their communities when making decisions on their behalf? Or will they simply adopt the same we know best attitude that our central government representatives display, when ignoring the overwhelming number of submissions calling for tougher controls.
The only accurate way for a community voice to be heard is though a local referendum that must be listened to by politicians.

"The second problem is that unless the new law clearly gives priority to the will of local decisions, we will find councils going through all the costly and time consuming processes to establish by-laws only to have these challenged in court by members of the liquor industry, causing further costs to the local ratepayers.

"This is exactly what happened with the Prostitution Law Reform Act. The central government law that was supposed to empower local decision making left too many loopholes that allowed local by-laws, supported by local communities, to be overturned by the courts in favour of the prostitution industry.

"If the Government," continued Baldock, "is serious about dealing with some of the core underlying problems with our alcohol laws, then they must take the bold action to make the law reforms very clear."

ends

© Scoop Media