DCC backs Swarbrick Bill

THE Dunedin City Council has joined a growing list of organisations pushing for Parliament to address alcohol harm.

The council has written to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to ask that the Labour Party supports Green MP Chloe Swarbrick’s Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Harm Minimisation) Amendment Members Bill at its first reading.

The proposed law change would provide local body authorities with more say on where and when alcohol is sold, and is also intended to protect children from potential harm from seeing alcohol advertised during sports broadcasts.

The council has previously attempted to introduce controls on alcohol sales in the city.

In 2016, when developing the local alcohol policy, the council met swift opposition when some of its policies were appealed through the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority (Arla)

This was addressed in the letter, written by Mayor Aaron Hawkins, which said Dunedin had spent time developing a local policy which would be in line with its obligation to reduce alcoholrelated harm.

‘‘Key planks of it were then appealed to Arla, who essentially ruled that because we couldn’t prove these [policies] would reduce harm they couldn’t be upheld.’’

It said the entire process was an expensive lesson.

Mr Hawkins said the Bill, if passed, would remove the special appeals process from developing local alcohol policies.

That would enable communities make local decisions around where, when and how alcohol can be sold.

Mr Hawkins said it would be worth revisiting the local alcohol policy if the council was able to set its own rules without them being appealed by the alcohol industry.

However, its focus at present was on getting the Bill through to select committee.

‘‘A policy like that should always be reviewed regularly, but under the current settings there’s no point.

‘‘The bar has been set too high for us to bother trying anything new,’’ he said.

An event intended to be held at Parliament yesterday in support of the Bill was postponed due to the special debate being held to mark the death of the Queen.

The Bill is expected to have its first reading in October.