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The Alcohol Reform Bill : More tinkering than reform in response to the New Zealand public's demand for better liquor laws
Author(s) -
KYPRI KYPROS,
MACLENNAN BRETT,
LANGLEY JOHN D.,
CONNOR JENNIE L.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00320.x
Subject(s) - unit (ring theory) , preventive healthcare , public health , medicine , family medicine , psychology , nursing , mathematics education
This is a watershed year for New Zealand alcohol policy. The long awaited Alcohol Reform Bill (ARB) will be considered in Parliament and a number of changes are likely to be legislated, perhaps before the end of 2011. The ARB is the government’s response to the Law Commission’s 2010 review report, Alcohol in Our Lives: Curbing the Harm [1]. The review was initiated by the previous Labour government in response to longstanding public and political concern over alcohol related harm in New Zealand, particularly violence. It drew from research evidence and 3000 public submissions to produce recommendations for substantial legislative reform. The Bill has now been referred to a Select Committee for consideration of public, expert and industry submissions, with a report due to Parliament in May 2011. In a previous article we evaluated elements of the Law Commission’s 2009 Issues Paper [2], in terms of whether its suggestions for reform were evidence based. Our aim here is to critically reflect on the quality of the Law Commission’s final advice to parliament and the degree to which the Government, through the ARB, rises to the challenge presented by this once-in-ageneration opportunity for liquor law reform