The fight for people’s right to be able to buy alcohol is very much alive in Parliament.
Among a bunch of booze-related members’ bills currently on Parliament’s agenda, or proposed members’ bills still waiting on the ballot, at least two look to close the gap on the few remaining days of the year when alcohol is not for sale.
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One of the three member’s bills picked from the biscuit tin last month was the Repeal of Good Friday and Easter Sunday as Restricted Trading Days (Shop Trading and Sale of Alcohol) Amendment Bill introduced by the ACT Party MP Chris Baillie.
As its name signals, the legislation is aimed at removing the restriction on selling of alcohol on the two statutory holidays at Easter time. You may wonder why the MP has stopped at those two when there is one other Christian commemoration-based stat holiday when alcohol cannot be sold. That’s Christmas Day of course. As it happens, another MP already thought of that.
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Sales on Anzac Day Morning, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Christmas Day) Amendment Bill was deposited in the member’s bills ballot last year, appropriately around Easter Time. It looks to allow licensed businesses already permitted to open on those days to be able to sell alcohol.
Unlike Baillie’s Bill, McAnulty’s is yet to get picked from the tin. One wonders if there may be scope for the two Bills to somehow weld together. This would effectively end restrictions on which days alcohol can be bought. If enough MPs (61 backbenchers) support a prospective member’s bill it can skip the ballot and jump straight onto the Order Paper.
Kieran McAnulty in the House Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Other bills look to get more specific about where there are still impediments on getting a drink.
National MP Ian McKelvie’s Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for Race Meetings) Amendment Bill is on the order paper for its first reading. This bill provides an exemption from restrictions in section 235 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 for racing clubs on the days of race meetings if the consumption of alcohol takes place at a time when the club holds either an on-licence or an on-site special licence that applies to the race meeting.
Another National MP, Stuart Smith, has submitted the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Cellar Door Tasting) Amendment Bill to the ballot. It allows wineries to charge visitors for tastings of their wine, and adds an off-licence category for wineries holding an on-licence.
If all this sounds like MPs are too preoccupied with making it easier to get drunk, some members are concerned about the harm caused to communities by alcohol.
Chlöe Swarbrick of the Greens has submitted the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Harm Minimisation) Amendment Bill to the ballot. This bill abolishes appeals on local alcohol policies in order to provide proper local control over alcohol regulation. It also implements a number of the recommendations of the 2014 Ministerial Forum on Alcohol Advertising and Sponsorship which recognises that many communities have not been able to develop public health approaches to the burgeoning promotion and provision of alcohol in their areas.
ACT MP Chris Baille Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
It’s still unclear if any of these Bills will pass. Member’s bills often don’t, but for at least two of them we should find out soon.