Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill

I plan to make a very short speech in the Committee stage, and I will not bother reading the bill name, because that will take up too much time. Can I commend the member in the chair, Paul Foster-Bell, who has put forward this bill. I want to point to Supplementary Order Paper 168, and to new section 47A(2), which sets out in the legislation that RSAs that are licensed and registered with the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association will be able to be open between the hours of 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Anzac Day itself. It seems odd that we have to come to this Chamber to do that, but it is, in fact, that we are correcting a piece of legislation, and I acknowledge—

💬 Paul Foster-Bell: I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson. I apologise to the member for interrupting. The point of order is that the clauses contained in bill all be taken as one question for the purposes of the Committee stage.

The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): You are seeking leave for that purpose?

💬 Paul Foster-Bell: Yes.

The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is not. Leave is sought that clauses 1 to 4 stand part, and the question is that clauses 1 to 4 stand part. Kris Faafoi—as a continuing call, with 4 minutes and 15 seconds to go.

I am glad; that will make the process even more efficient. There will be many presidents of RSAs around the country who will be happy that this piece of legislation will go through this Committee in the manner that it is today. It will ensure that they will get to have a beer, if they want to enjoy a beer, or a drink on the morning of Anzac Day and not have to go through the rigmarole of having to apply for an exemption or a special licence for that purpose. It will save RSAs around the country a fair bit of money, especially if they are a smaller, struggling RSA.

I found myself in the good position of sharing a beer with one of my local RSA presidents last Friday, who was one of the RSA presidents who called me and said it was my job to try to help sort this out. So I do acknowledge Roger Kingsford, the president of the Porirua RSA, and also acknowledge the president of the Titahi Bay RSA, which is my local RSA, John O’Hara, who at Easter also told me of this issue. It is one of the smaller clubs that I spoke of, and $265 within the jurisdiction of the Porirua City Council is a lot of money. So they will not have to face that financial burden in the future because of this.

I would like to thank the member again. I acknowledge the process we have to go through to speed this through, but I do think it is a good thing that we can have this law in place by this Anzac Day so we do not put extra pressures on our RSAs around the country.

I am putting forward Supplementary Order Paper 168 in my name, which has been tabled and circulated. I am moving that it be adopted, because the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill as originally drafted worked on the assumption that RSA clubs use general liquor licences. In subsequent conversations, including conversations with the RSA and others, it was made clear to me that there is a range of arrangements in place. Many actually operate under club licences. There are some who still operate under royal charters; there are a few remaining royal charters in existence. The Supplementary Order Paper does, in fact, deal with that particular detail.

It also deals with some other small technical and drafting matters. There are a number of clubs—and members have alluded to this so far in the debate—that operate by subletting or are under the auspices of another club. An example locally in our region is the Petone Working Men’s Club, which houses the Lower Hutt Memorial Returned and Services Association, but there is a range of different arrangements in place, including some that are within Cosmopolitan Clubs, others in sports clubs, such as bowling clubs, and some even sublet commercial premises. So the Supplementary Order Paper does deal with that particular issue. I make no apology for seeking to retain the primacy of the RSA as the institution that preserves the memory of the sacrifices of New Zealanders at war, rather than expanding it more widely to the bowling clubs, the rugby clubs, and the other service organisations, which can continue to seek a special licence should they wish to commemorate Anzac Day with the service of alcohol.

One complexity in our local licensing law is the issue of the local alcohol policy. Some localities have rolled out their local alcohol policy, and they have put in place local default opening hours that supersede the national default. Other localities, including here in Wellington, have yet to implement their local alcohol plan. So this Supplementary Order Paper takes care of both situations. Whether or not they have yet rolled out a local alcohol plan, the RSAs within a locality will be covered.

Also there is the issue of the one-way door policy, which my friend Clayton Mitchell brought up. It is absolutely clear to me that the legislation we have in place was designed to deal with early morning pub crawls and bar hopping. It is a very different situation from that where members of the RSA and their families, and the wider community might want to come into the club rooms, perhaps leave their coats, go outside and lay a wreath, take part in a solemn Dawn Service observance, and then go back inside for the gunfire breakfast. We have a gunfire breakfast locally here in Wellington this year, thanks to the work of the Hon Maggie Barry, the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage. It will actually take place inside the Arras Tunnel, it might interest the member to know. So it will be very large and quite expensive to put on, but it gives an all-weather option for those who are going to that big Dawn Service.

But for those in small community RSAs, such as my local RSA in Karori, it is a practical measure that prevents door-hopping policies blocking what is a harmless activity in observing that gunfire breakfast. I think that Clayton Mitchell’s Supplementary Order Paper, which deals with the name of the bill, is actually a sensible one. In my Supplementary Order Paper there was also a streamlining of the name. I am agnostic as to which option is best, but it is sensible to streamline the name to make it a bit less of a mouthful to say. Thank you.

I want to take just a quick call in the Committee stage of this new legislation. I have to say that Supplementary Order Paper 168, which came through last night, was quite hot when it was first handed to me. None the less, it does make some sense.

Just getting back to the point I made in the first reading, with regard to a Monty Python sketch or a scene out of The Muppet Show, when we were talking about “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady” sung by Kermit the Frog—this is exactly what we are talking about here in amending section 44 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, to amend the “Permitted trading hours for premises without relevant local alcohol policy”. It says here: “In section 44(3), after ‘(Rugby World Cup 2015 extended trading hours)’, insert ‘and section 47A (Anzac Day trading hours for licensed RNZRSA clubs)’.” It goes on and does the same thing in section 45, amending the “Permitted trading hours for premises with relevant local alcohol policy”. It says: “In section 45(3), after ‘(Rugby World Cup 2015 extended trading hours)’, insert ‘and section 47A (Anzac Day trading hours for licensed RNZRSA clubs)’.”

And that, to me, is not what the intention of legislation is about—doing on the fly amendments and changes. That is an indictment. It is a blotch on the paper of our Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act. We would certainly urge the Government to readdress this issue about common-sense policy around the simple act of having a drink for an occasion.

The police are getting no blame from New Zealand First for the stance that it takes, because, of course, the legislation is open for interpretation. Where the police lay its decision making, with regard to the issuing of a special licence, is very risk averse. Understanding the situation of the New Zealand Police, being so under-resourced as it currently is—as the Minister of Police will no doubt one day agree to, and will actually service the police more adequately. It would certainly help that situation, for the police to be able to resource special licensing conditions, to make sure that order is kept within our communities.

We do put forward Supplementary Order Paper 170. The simple fact of saying Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for RNZRSA Clubs from Special Licencing Requirements for Anzac Day) Amendment Bill—I can hardly get through it before I need to take another breath. It would certainly be better said by saying the “Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Anzac Day Extended Hours for RSAs) Amendment Bill”. So, hopefully, we can change that when we go to put it to the vote.

We certainly will be supporting this bill all the way through, to get some common sense into the art of having a beer and celebrating the people who have given their lives, given their time, and given their services to their country, and to the values that they hold—principally, the New Zealand way of life. Thank you.

The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 168 in the name of Paul Foster-Bell to clause 1 be agreed to.

Amendment agreed to.

We move to Clayton Mitchell’s amendment to clause 1, as set out on Supplementary Order Paper 170. This is now out of order, as it is inconsistent with a previous decision of the Committee.

Clause 1 as amended agreed to.

Clause 2 agreed to.

Clause 3 agreed to.

The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 168 in the name of Paul Foster-Bell to clause 4 be agreed to.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 4 as amended agreed to.

Bill reported with amendment.

Report adopted.