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

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

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): 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 second time.

This bill will ensure that Kiwis can continue the great tradition of coming together with family, friends, and their community to support their teams during the men’s Rugby World Cup—in particular, of course, the mighty All Blacks, but also, I hope, some other teams as well. For myself, I’ll be supporting the Georgian team, the Lelos—a great contender. The bill achieves this by allowing licence holders to extend their trading hours to televise live games from the tournament without applying for a special licence. We know hospitality businesses have had it tough over the past few years, and this bill will support them by changing the law to ensure that they can maximise the benefits of this highly anticipated tournament with the fans.

Businesses will now be able to remain open outside of normal trading hours when televising Rugby World Cup matches from France, which will happen outside of those normal trading hours, and it’ll mean businesses won’t have to go through the special licence process. These provisions in the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 work well most of the time, but licence holders run into challenges with this process when it comes to televised Rugby World Cup tournaments.

This bill is a practical solution that provides a more expedient and flexible way for licence holders to extend their trading hours. Making this temporary change does not give a free pass or a cut out to anyone who wants to extend their hours. First, the bill sets eligibility criteria. Extended trading hours are only available to current on-licence and club licence holders whose licences haven’t been varied or suspended in the past year. Second, licence holders will need to take some action themselves to extend their trading hours by notifying police and local councils in writing at least seven days beforehand. And third, the bill regulates opening and closing times for the extended trading hours. Unless the first game of the night is within two hours of the usual closing time for the venue, they will need to close at the end of the usual day before reopening for the match.

This bill makes it clear that the extended trading hours will be treated in the same way as the premises’ usual trading hours. All requirements and conditions under the Act and licensing conditions on the individual premises continue to apply unless the bill explicitly overrides them. Licence holders are still liable for offences under the Act and all the usual police powers remain.

I do want to thank submitters for their input into the select committee process, and the Justice Committee for its very hard work on this bill. I’m pleased the committee has unanimously recommended that the bill be passed largely unchanged. The committee has recommended two minor changes to the bill. These changes were suggested by submitters with operational experience, and they improve the overall clarity of the bill. I welcome these changes as I think they’ll make it easier for licence holders to understand what they need to do and will improve the police’s ability to enforce those provisions. I note that most submitters in fact discussed broader themes within the alcohol regulation and suggested changes to the Act which fall outside of the scope of this bill. I appreciate those suggestions and they will inform the Minister of Justice’s future work.

But, for now, I look forward to—with rugby fans throughout Aotearoa—being able to back their team in France whilst also supporting our local hospitality businesses. I commend the bill to the House.

Members, the time has come for me to leave the Chair. At 2 p.m., the House will hold oral questions. This debate will resume after that. This sitting is suspended.

Debate interrupted.

Sitting suspended from 12.57 p.m. to 2 p.m.