Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill

I present a legislative statement on the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.

I move, That the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill, and at the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 11 July 2023 and that the committee have authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting (except during oral questions), during any evening on a day on which there will be a sitting of the House, on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House, and outside the Wellington area, despite Standing Orders 193, 195, and 196.

The Rugby World Cup is one of the most significant events in the rugby calendar. Supporting the All Blacks and coming together with family, friends, and the community to watch live matches is a special part of being a New Zealander. The bill will make it easier for New Zealanders to enjoy the men’s Rugby World Cup by allowing eligible licence holders to extend their premises’ trading hours to televise matches from the tournament without applying for a special licence.

The Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act sets maximum trading hours for on-licence and club licence premises—so I’m talking about bars, pubs, restaurants, hotels, and clubrooms around the country. Those maximum times fall between 8 in the morning and 4 a.m. the next morning. Many premises have shorter trading hours than this, established by the local alcohol policies or as a condition of their individual licence.

This year, the Rugby World Cup will be played in France. Time zone differences mean that many matches will be broadcast outside the maximum trading hours for pubs and clubs. For an event as important as the Rugby World Cup, we want to make sure that New Zealanders have options for enjoying live matches whilst also supporting the hospitality sector, and this is what this bill does. I acknowledge that licence holders can apply for a special licence to extend trading hours for events. This process works well most of the time. However, I understand the licence holders can find it difficult to use the special licence process for televised Rugby World Cup tournaments. For example, the 20-day application process can present real challenges when the public demand for watching the matches in the later stages for the tournament is unpredictable. The special licence process is not well suited or flexible enough in these circumstances where licence holders require a responsive process. Licence holders can also find it difficult to meet special licence criteria, as case law holds that televised events should be subject to additional measures of control, such as presale tickets, a door charge, or a maximum cap on attendees. I understand that case law can be applied inconsistently, making it difficult to predict whether or not an application will be successful when a publican applies.

This bill is based on the amendments made for the 2015 and the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which were also played in the Northern Hemisphere. The bill exempts eligible licence holders from the special licence process and creates a notification system instead, where licence holders provide written notice to police and to their local councils. Not all licence holders will be eligible to extend their trading hours. The bill only applies to current on-licence and club licence holders that have not had their licence suspended or cancelled in the last year. Extended trading hours only apply to premises that will televise a live match. Extended hours will be treated as the premises’ usual trading hours. This means most of the other provisions of the Act will continue to apply, including those relating to host responsibilities. The general offences under the Act and police powers to shut down premises where appropriate will of, course, continue to apply.

To minimise harm and reduce disruption during extended trading hours, the bill includes extra conditions that licence holders must fulfil if they want their trading hours extended. For example, licence holders will need to notify their local council and police at least seven days prior to the extended hours taking place, and also provide a noise management plan. They will also be required to stop selling alcohol 30 minutes after the end of the match. We’ve done this twice before now, so we have the benefit of drawing on previous experiences. This time around, we’re making it clear that licence holders must tell police and local councils if they change their minds about televising a match. We’re also asking police to keep track of details about how many licence holders take up this opportunity to extend their trading hours. This will strengthen police’s ability to plan and manage resources effectively and improve our ability to monitor and evaluate the impact of the amendments.

We’re committed to ensuring that all New Zealanders can enjoy the 2023 Rugby World Cup safely and responsibly. This bill provides a practical and administratively straightforward solution. It takes an appropriate balance between providing licence holders with the certainty and flexibility they need and supporting communities to cheer their team on whilst also minimising any potential harm.

On this side of myself [gestures to the left], I am about a fourth-generation Frenchie, so, “Oui, oui!”, go the French; but on this side [gestures to the right], mostly, a New Zealander, so up the All Blacks! I commend this bill to the House.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s with great pleasure that I stand and take a call. This the first reading of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill. Look, the Minister Kiritapu Allan covered it off very well, as, you know, it was an amazing experience for us as a country to get behind and support our Black Ferns in winning the Women’s Rugby World Cup. I was lucky enough to be at the ground, watching the final. It’s probably one of the tensest games I’ve ever watched, when, of course, the English had very good forwards and were keeping it in the forwards and mauling the ball and were sort of using that tactic, and all of a sudden our Black Ferns came alive and started the ball moving out wide. They never gave in. They dug in, and the country was extremely proud of the result that they delivered for us. Rugby is, essentially, a very important game. It’s part of our culture here in New Zealand. And, of course, the next Rugby World Cup is going to be played in France.

I see the Hon Peeni Henare across the way there, one of our top midfield backs in the Parliamentary Rugby Team, a hard-running and hitting back and a very strong defender, who has been part of the Parliamentary Rugby Team over many years—he played for, defended, and won the Parliamentary Rugby World Cup. Unfortunately, neither of us are going to be there this year, because we are in the regulated period for a general election. But I wish our team all the best for travelling to France and defending the cup.

So, look, we’re very happy to support the bill. I do want to acknowledge too our shadow Leader of the House, the Hon Michael Woodhouse, who has agreed to a shortened report-back period. We’ve agreed to that, obviously because time is of the essence and we have to get this bill passed. It’s not a new bill. We did this in 2019. It’s a good, practical bill, and we’re very happy to support it in the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s also a pleasure to take a call on this bill, the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill. I am not the tallest or broadest in stature, so it may surprise some to know that at primary school my lunchtimes were spent playing wing in schoolyard rugby at Thorndon Primary School, just down the road. I’ll tell you it was a real sense, for me, of community and camaraderie when we got together and watched the All Blacks play or I watched the All Blacks with my dad. It is a very strong part of our culture here in Aotearoa.

I am a fan of rugby, but I am also a fan of ensuring that we do have sound regulation in the alcohol area as well. But I must say I do believe one of the best places to ensure good regulation is with licensed premises owners, because they do have those obligations to ensure that they are not selling to minors, that the people there are drinking responsibly, and that if anything turns, they alert the police or have a conversation with people. So when you are working with great licensed providers, it is possible to go out, enjoy a beer, and watch a game.

I think we also need to think about who we’re talking about when we’re talking about extending the time lines for licence holders. I go to the local RSA on Anzac Day, and they open the bar after the Anzac Day service. Again, it’s a real sense of community and camaraderie, and, up until April 2016, those RSAs used to have to apply for special licences. At the time, it was recognised that, actually, all of these RSAs were applying for licences and all of them were presumed to be granted them in due course, so it was really a matter of streamlining things to say that they could have access to extended hours over that Anzac Day service period. There are a lot of similarities in terms of what this bill is trying to do.

To my mind, what we need to make sure of is that we are being responsible in terms of providing the safeguards around those extended licences. I won’t speak to those, because the Minister, the Hon Kiritapu Allan, has covered those very well. I know we have a shortened time period to hear from submitters on this, but, as the chair of the Justice Committee, I am looking forward to hearing submissions from those interested parties. I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Just acknowledging the last member’s contribution, Vanushi Walters, to put on the record that it was Paul Foster-Bell, actually—a fine National MP—who put through the bill which allowed what they called the “gunfire breakfast” now on Anzac Day. So a bit of a shout out to Paul Foster-Bell and to continue to put his name into Hansard.

As has already been said, this side of the House, the National Party, supports this bill. I mean, part of the reason and my own thinking is we’ve been here before. I think 2019 and 2015 we have passed pretty much the same, if not near similar, legislation. I think the Minister outlined the reasoning is sound. This is an exceptional law change for an exceptional event—and you can use the word “exceptional” in two different ways if you wish. But we are talking about the men’s Rugby World Cup—so that’s in September this year. It’s very obvious that people will want to watch this. It’s at a time of night when most trading places are closing. So the idea put forward is sensible. I think it’s one that Kiwis will be quite happy with.

Importantly for me, this is about existing licence holders. These are people who already operate alcohol licences—by and large, very, very well. The bill as set down as well means that these licence holders will have to engage with police, notify them of what they’re doing—obviously, noise control measures and so forth.

But I return to my second point. The first point, of course, is Paul Foster-Bell, just to put his name in Hansard again. But the second point, rather, was that this is something that we’ve done before, in 2019 and 2015, and we didn’t have any problems. So I see this as a very prudent piece of legislation, a very good piece of legislation. And I add, as others have done, which seems to be the way, I am even happy that we have a shortened report-back period. With that, I commend the bill to the House.

Kia ora e te Māngai o te Whare. Now, it is something that I really feel quite strongly about—we have had such a triumphant following for women’s rugby. It has been truly tremendous, and we all rallied around that. Therefore, it is time. It is time that we supported the men’s game as we have supported the women’s game. It is time that we gave that sort of gender equity to it. Although we are unable to have the privilege of the games taking place in New Zealand, we need to encourage people to follow the male game as we have done the women’s game, and, therefore, I do really support the changes in this legislation, the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill.

As previous speakers have said, we have a template that has worked in the past, and it is one that we are able to take and better. In particular, we are making a few changes. We are enabling one hour open before the game begins; if you notify that the game is going to start within two hours of another game, then you will be allowed to continue that on; you have to stop serving alcohol within 30 minutes after the game; and a few small amendments are going to make this work better.

I really do, however, want to commend the Minister of Justice for taking this on, because I know how important gender equity is to her, and I really want to support her for supporting the men’s game, as we are now doing.

As a child, I played absolutely no rugby—in fact, any game involving balls. By the time I was 15, I was, in fact, exempt from all physical education and was allowed to read a book on the sidelines. But that being so, I acknowledge the need for diversity and for the encouragement of cultural activity. Therefore, I commend this bill to the House.

While I’m tempted, there are some places I just won’t go to.

I stand on behalf of the ACT Party to support the first reading of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill, although it is a bit of a hospital pass, having been left to the last minute, and when we were given this, we were told that there could be some last-minute changes made by Cabinet to the starting line-up of this bill and we don’t know whether or not they actually intend to spin it wide. But we wouldn’t have needed to rush the bill if the Government had just listened to ACT’s Damien Smith, who, on the day after St Patrick’s Day—that’s right, 18 March 2023—gave the Government our Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill. Our shamrock here even named the bill for this Government, who just added “2023” to the end of it, just to make sure that it was in there twice. Damien Smith gave the Government an easy kick, right in front of the sticks, allowing them to take home the bonus point for the hospitality sector.

The Government dropped the ball back in March, and they should have formed a rolling maul and rumbled our bill over the line. Instead, they panicked and they kicked for touch, leaving our hospitality sector wondering if they were being penalised for a knock on. In March, we outlined how our hospitality sector has been affected by the last three years of yellow and red cards from this Government, and how our bill would help give certainty to these sectors to plan and to participate in a full legislative process as to what the temporary change during Rugby World Cup 2023 would mean to them. As David Seymour said back in 2015—which the Government copied in 2019—getting on to this set piece play back in March would have scored more points with the hospitality sector, if anything, to allow them to plan their moves, get their reserves lined up, and get set for kick-off.

Instead, the New Zealand hospitality sector has to deal with a Government who is addicted to spending and addicted to urgent legislation. There was no need for urgency here. As at 1.30 p.m. today, there was no regulatory impact statement, nor a departmental disclosure statement, although I see it’s on the Table now. This Government needs to spend the rest of the game in the sin bin.

Analogies aside—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, I was about to take a “razor” to your speech, actually, Ms McKee. But we might spend some time on the bill, shall we?

We’re on the bill now, Mr Speaker. This bill will make some temporary amendments because the Rugby World Cup is scheduled to run between 9 September and 29 October in France. One wonders whether there could be extensions offered for 15 October for some, but it’s not Rugby World Cup for that allowance.

It will allow those already with licences to apply to expand their trading hours when they televise games, but they can be restricted by local alcohol policies as well as district licensing committee rules and determinations. The primary and sole purpose for opening during these hours are just to allow customers to watch a live, televised game. Currently, it can take 20 working days to allow this to happen, but this bill will mean that they can go through under quicker time.

If their trading licence has actually been cancelled in the last 12 months, they won’t be able to apply. So, as my colleagues have said, it’s for existing licences and existing businesses, and there must be a provision for police and territorial authorities (TAs) to be given seven days’ notice of any changes that they want to make in writing.

There needs to be a noise management plan, as well as a requirement to notify police and TAs if there are any other changes to them, say, not opening should they get into a position where—I don’t want to jinx it—there is not a requirement to stay open for the full length, to 29 October. But also the police can shut it down—the bars, that is, not the cup—if they need to, if things get a bit out of hand.

So there are only a couple of little changes within the bill. These look pretty good. For example, they can open an hour before a game, but if they are actually still open two hours before a game, they can stay open. They must shut 30 minutes after a game has finished, and the one-way door policies won’t apply within an hour before the extended trading. Police will also be keeping records of scale and demand, which will be quite good for future world cups, although we do notice that the next world cup is going to be in Australia in 2027.

So, temporary this bill is. Therefore, for the final whistle on this first reading, we commend the bill to the House.

Point of order, Mr Speaker. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Look, I didn’t want to interrupt the member whilst she was in full flow, but I just wish to correct the record. I said that the Government kicked the ball to touch, but, of course, we didn’t. It was a field goal, with that three points getting us over the line to get to this point here—a mighty touchdown.

Thank you, Minister, for that enlightenment.

E te Māngai, tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. It pains me to stand up and to break the consensus and the joy that has broken out across the House. If this legislation calls for anything, it is for a sense of consistency. As far as that goes, members in this place who were here last term will know that the Greens voted down similar legislation back in 2019. So if members are interested in a nuanced discussion about that, well, buckle up.

So what we’re talking about today, and many have contributed to this debate, is particularly the men’s Rugby World Cup, as the case has it. This legislation, in fact, about licensing and alcohol licensing, is obviously within the context of the Rugby World Cup, but fundamentally it is about access and availability of alcohol—Aotearoa New Zealand’s favourite drug, consumed by 80 percent of those of the age to do so, a quarter of them to really harmful ends. As this House has canvased in many debates previously, we do have quite a problem in this country with regards to how deeply intertwined sports and alcohol is. That, of course, is why the former National Government back in 2014 commissioned the ministerial forum, chaired by Sir Graham Lowe, recommending, for example, an end to alcohol advertising and sponsorship of sports, but I digress.

What many speakers have actually touched on is the fact that we are seeing this kind of legislation become ever more frequent. I think that there is an inherent problem with that when we have a kind of predictability of what is fundamentally quite an ad hoc approach and as, actually, my learned colleague from the ACT Party just raised, the fact that this was tabled in lightning speed and that the House is now passing it just as quickly. To that effect, I think that all of us would agree that there is perhaps the need for some greater interrogation of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012, because if we are consistently needing to have this exceptional law change in these circumstances, then perhaps, much like the circumstance with Anzac services, as raised by Vanushi Walters, then it is the case that we need to go about interrogating and fixing the law itself.

But at present, we do have a mechanism for those who would like to be open for these hours for the likes of the Rugby World Cup or for other special events, as the case may be. That, of course, is for licence holders to apply to get a special licence to the district licensing committee. Interestingly enough, if the district licensing committee finds that they do not want to grant a special licence, then they are finding that overall that application is inconsistent with the purposes of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012. Mr Speaker, I hope you get where I am going here. It is ultimately about how we can provide these special licences in such a way as to potentially reduce harm.

There is actually no evidence at this point in time—and to that effect, I’m really interested in what comes through in the Justice Committee process—that there is a widespread problem with the special licensing process. Again, if it is the case that there is a problem with the way that these special licensing provisions work, then we need to go about changing the primary legislation, which of course we have an opportunity to, and I would hope that all of the House agrees on.

But just reflecting on some of the things that I’ve been speaking to local police about in my electorate of Auckland Central, as many others have touched on, it is actually the case that the police in my patch tell me that the biggest issue that they deal with is alcohol and unruly patrons of certain hospitality venues, and therefore they are massively encouraging of a better regulatory environment for the control of alcohol as, again, a drug, if we’re to speak freely and frankly, to which I would hope that all members in this House have consistency on when it comes to evidence-based approaches.

So, for sake of consistency, the Greens will be opposing this tonight, but we’d say once again that if there is a need to consistently bring legislation like this whenever there is a men’s Rugby World Cup or a Women’s Rugby World Cup, as the case may be, then it’s the case that we need to amend the primary legislation, because otherwise we are at risk of continuing to operate in an ad hoc way that, ironically and perversely, becomes all too predictable.

Good on Chlöe Swarbrick. That was a difficult speech to give, after consensus and joyfulness had burst out in the House and we’d just given a round of speeches about how good rugby is. Is rugby good?

💬 Hon Members: Yes!

Is getting together in the clubrooms good? Yes. And we support that all around this House. But that was a difficult speech to give because it is about balancing access to alcohol in those clubrooms in a sport we all love, and in the community organisations that we all support in this House, and so I commend her for what was a measured approach to her speech. I don’t agree with her, though; I think this a good bill, because this is a bill which is pragmatic. It extends those powers that we have extended before, to make sure that the game we love and the clubrooms that we love continue in the way that we love to enjoy it, as New Zealanders.

This bill extends those powers and it introduces some new controls that give police powers to make sure that those records are kept well and that we can continue to enjoy this in a way which is fun for everyone. That’s how we should continue to make alcohol policy—we should continue to make it fun for everyone and be able to enjoy it in our communities so it’s not harming people. This is a bill that does that, that’s why it’s good. I commend it.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The National Party, as has been said before, supports this piece of legislation, the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill. It is so good to be able to work at a bipartisan level on this issue, and so often the House comes together to work together on these matters, with the exception of the Greens, who very much cleave to the principle that it’s not good for you unless it hurts and that fun is to be discouraged. That’s the approach they have, and that’s a pity, but most New Zealanders, I think, hold to the view that it’s nice to be able to celebrate the Rugby World Cup once every four years. It doesn’t fit with the normal licensing requirements for bars—often the games are early in the morning—and so some flexibility is required.

You could have a very large pile of applications for all sorts of special licences, or what we’ve found in the past is that it’s simpler to pass some legislation to deal with this issue. We support them in doing that, and in doing so we stand here, I’m sure, all people in the House, wishing our rugby players all the best in the competition, that they’ll do well, and that they’ll do this country proud. I don’t feel like there’s anything more that needs to be added here other than to say—

💬 Hon Member: Go another round!

Well—no, I won’t say anything about shareholdings or anything like that; I’ll just say, in a moment of cross-party unity, that we support this bill and we want to get on with it.

Let’s not talk about airport shares. Let’s not talk about fiscal holes. Let’s talk about none of that stuff. We’re here to talk about rugby. Can I just say that the purpose of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act is all about the management of intoxication of people. It’s all about reducing the harm to society. This bill, in that context, is incredibly safe.

Can I give a little bit of an acknowledgment to those on-licence holders out there spread all across the country that it is their daily business to run a bar, to run a restaurant, and alcohol is sold. Those people, the ones that have to apply for their licence and have to maintain the conditions of their licence, have to monitor intoxication, they have to provide food, they have to provide non-alcoholic beverages, and they have to provide water on-site as well, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Despite the fact that we are freeing up a bit of legislation, those places that are going to apply to be able to view the game, have punters come and watch the game at all hours of the night, will be doing what they always do, which is monitor the intoxication levels within the premises and also reduce the harm to society.

I think it’s a safe piece of legislation. We’ve put the belt and braces around it, and it’s good to hear that it’s mostly supported around the House. I commend it.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s my pleasure to also take a short call on this bill, the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill. First of all, it would be remiss of me not to congratulate our local Ruahei Demant, who is a former Mahurangi College student, for receiving the New Zealand Order of Merit, in the recent King’s Birthday Honours round, for her services to rugby. Most recently, of course, she co-captained the Black Ferns to win the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2022. My congratulations, on the record, for that.

This particular piece of legislation is very straightforward, as has been mentioned before. It, basically, fixes something that was previously fixed in 2015 and 2019 so that licensed premises can stay open during the Rugby World Cup matches later this year, when they kick off in France in September. I do acknowledge some of the hesitation that has been mentioned by the Green speaker previously, Chlöe Swarbrick, but for people to come together and enjoy a game, sitting in front of a big screen, and having that facilitated in a very confined, temporary measure is, I think, a good thing. I commend this bill to the House.

Well, everyone dreams of coming to Parliament and talking about rugby, racing, and beer—oh, not the racing; rugby and beer. Where better could you get than this to talk about the things we were brought up on? I’m not at all musical, but many of you—not many of you, actually—will remember John Clarke, very famous; known alias Fred Dagg. All he could sing about was rugby, racing, and beer, and Taihape and gumboots. I think it just shows that—I suppose it’s what New Zealand’s made of, and it’s what we make of what we’re made of that’s important.

I just want to touch on a couple of things said by other speakers. Of course, there is a Rugby World Cup going on during the election campaign this year. I did offer my services to Mark Mitchell, but he turned me down—never had a reply. So, obviously, they don’t want my talent there.

But the other thing I thought was really intriguing tonight was the Green speaker, Chlöe Swarbrick, talking about how they voted something down. My recollection of the Greens is that in the history of the Greens, they’ve never voted anything down in this Parliament, because they’ve never put themselves in a position to vote anything down, so that clearly was never going to happen. I think that probably sums up what we need to have in this Parliament. We need to have people who are prepared to take a stand on things and take a stand that they can win, not a stand that they lose every time. I think that’s really important.

I want to talk, just before I get on to the things that really matter with respect to this bill, about rugby in New Zealand, because I think it’s hugely concerning that the sport that I grew up, I guess, playing, loving, going to every Saturday—and still do, as often as I can, on a Saturday. The difference is that when I played and when I chaired a rugby club, not that many years ago, there were 13 senior teams in Manawatū Rugby. There are now seven. There are now seven colts teams in Manawatū Rugby. Massey University used to have 14 of them. I think that’s the great tragedy we’re seeing with sports that we’ve known for so long. So you’ve got to ask yourself whether it’s just the changing times that make a difference to these sort of things or whether, in fact, the administration of some of our sports is not what it could be.

I, unlike Mark Mitchell and Peeni Henare, never reached international standards, but I think that the key to all sports in New Zealand, and the key to racing in New Zealand, and the key to everything else we do in New Zealand is the people at the base and the grassroots of all of these activities. If we don’t have those people encouraged and doing what they can do, we won’t have any sport at all in due course. I think one of the keys of this bill, really, is enabling those people who enjoy sport, who like what goes on, who enjoy competition, who enjoy New Zealand being successful, actually, who want to participate in the activities that will be enabled by this bill passing—that’s the key to sport in New Zealand. So I think if it does nothing else, this bill, it does give many of those people who participate actively in administration and supporting sportspeople in New Zealand the opportunity to participate in an international event of significance. So I think that’s the key to the bill.

Just one other thing I want to talk about and which has been touched on by a couple of others, including Chlöe Swarbrick: I think that the fact we’ve had to bring this bill back to the House three times now signals to me that there’s something wrong with our alcohol law in New Zealand. I think it’s urgent that we reform all of the alcohol law in New Zealand. In fact, we’ve had a number of alcohol bills in this Parliament—probably four or five of them now—that have come through because our base legislation doesn’t deal with the issues.

Tāmati Coffey himself talked about the responsibility of licence holders. Licence holders, really, are the key to upholding all of this stuff. They are the key to our law and order officials and our police having less to do, having less problem with what goes on as a result of alcohol. There’s no doubt that consuming alcohol in licensed premises is vastly superior to consuming alcohol in a boy racer’s car down my street, which happens just about every Saturday night—in fact, it does happen every Saturday night. You can clean up the mess if you want to, but it’s really important, I think, that we encourage those licence holders—there must be thousands of them throughout New Zealand—and give them the power to operate as they see fit, but make sure they’re compliant.

I think that when we do look to review the alcohol laws in New Zealand, we do look to put more emphasis or onus on the people that control these entities and dispense alcohol throughout New Zealand. That, in my view, will take a lot of the onus off our law and order community and also, probably, take a fair bit of damage off our streets. So I think there’s a reason for us to look beyond what’s going on with this bill and a couple of others we’ve got in the House this week, and make sure that if we do reform this, it does cater for all these sort of things.

So I clearly support the direction this bill takes. As I said, we’ve had two previous bills of this nature through the House, and I think it will add a lot to the event. I probably won’t be out there at 4 o’clock in the morning myself; a bit too late at night for me. I might be up by then. Anyway, I support the bill, and National clearly supports the bill, and I think it’s a good thing for New Zealand.

Thank you e te Mana Whakawā. It’s my honour to score the final try, the winning try, on the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill. I just want to acknowledge the last speaker, Ian McKelvie. You should have given him a penalty, Mr Speaker, for comparing rugby to racing. But anyway, you didn’t do that.

I’m taking a short call on this, because I know if I go over time the whip’s definitely going to give me a drop kick. Anyway, this, basically, means that the Rugby World Cup 2023, when it kicks off in France—and I just want to take us to the Tongan game because I’m not biased by anything, not biased at all, so when Tonga plays Ireland on 16 September at 7 in the morning, it means retailers can open up at 5 in the morning, you know, to welcome all the Tongans and all their flags into the pub. And we will be there until we win the game against Ireland, and half an hour after the final whistle—we’ll be there. So that’s what this bill really means. And I want to actually take us to 6 October; that will be Tonga versus South Africa at 8 a.m. It means pubs can open up at 6 a.m. to welcome the Tongans to, you know, look at that final winning try by the Tongans. Last but not least, it means that on election day—the first quarter-final is on election day, 14 October, the first game’s at 8 in the morning. It means that publicans can open at 6 a.m. to welcome people in, on election day, before they cast their vote.

Anyway, I don’t want to go over time. What we want in this bill is that we want the line-outs on the field, not the line-up at the police station. And I commend this bill to the House. Malo.

The question is, That the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill be considered by the Justice Committee.

Motion agreed to.

Bill referred to the Justice Committee.

Instruction to Justice Committee