Larry Graham, Tom Fisher and Gus Rieper were given the opportunity to speak to the Clubs New Zealand submission on Alcohol Reform on Friday the 4th of March.  To view a copy of the Clubs New Zealand Submission on the Alcohol Reform Bill please  click here (134.4 kB).  Below is a copy of the presentation made to the Select Committee.

"Thank you for the chance to talk to our submission. 

Given the brief time allocated I wish to go straight to the issues that concern our Clubs.

Firstly, Clubs NZ is the National body that represents 300 clubs and approximately 300 thousand paid up members as of December 2010. This figure does not include their own families who are ordinary folk spread across every community in NZ.

Our small team in the National Office in Wellington have in place systems that look after our clubs members including 2500 staff.

We have found to date that one set of regulations and a National point of contact is the most effective way of ensuring that all our member Clubs are able to deliver best practice across the country.

While these are covered in our submission we want to use this occasion to highlight four main points:

Practical application of the Bill in relation to format

You will note in our submission we have identified the importance of ensuring our members have a full understanding of the new act. Our members have grown up with 1989 sale of liquor act and know it well.

Our member clubs also highlighted the difficulty they are having understanding the new format and associated reference conditions.

We would like to see the cross referencing minimised or removed and that future referencing be reformatted using the subjects On Licence; Club Licence; Off Licence and Special Licence rather than all inclusive areas such as 'restrictions relating to trading hours'.

We would appreciate if you could consider our recommendations around the formatting of the final draft. Essentially to take away the confusion.

We also accept that if we are able to continue with our National delivery we could take the responsibility of preparing a national guide for Clubs to assist them in understanding the full implications of the act.

This will of course lead to a higher level of compliance among members.

The role of Territorial Authorities, Police and Licensing Authority

We are particularly concerned at the devolving of decision making to the TA's which we believe will severely and negatively impact our ability to maintain the uniformity and consistency of quality of delivery. Hence we are saying that any discretion given to the TA's regarding interpretation of conditions will challenge our ability to give sound and consistent advice nationally.

With this bill providing individual Territorial Authorities with the jurisdiction to apply different discretionary conditions to the four liquor licences; it will effect our ability to ensure high and consistent levels of training and consistency in the information we regularly deliver to our members.

We believe that by nationally standardising the conditions around operating hours; licence fees and conditions and access for clubs will remove confusion and assist with the daily working relationships between clubs and their local authorities.

Off Licences and the effect that the current criteria for the category of 'Club' may have on our member clubs

The new act now compasses sports clubs and chartered clubs under the same heading. The impact of removing the independent Chartered Clubs category is that clubs will no longer be able to apply for new off licences. This is of huge concern. This can be fixed by simply adding 'Sports Club' as a separate category and allowing Chartered Clubs to maintain their individual identity in the hospitality industry.

The reason that Chartered Clubs are currently able to have off licences is because they are professional and full time in nature with fully trained staff where as Sports Clubs predominantly rely on volunteers. And this situation is unlikely to change.

If Clubs are no longer able to obtain off licence facilities there are parts of New Zealand where the community will be unable to purchase off licence products due to the lack of other options.

It is important that Chartered Clubs should not only be able to retain their Off Licences but also be able to renew or apply for new Off Licences in the future.

Courtesy Coaches

Finally it has long been Clubs New Zealand's view that our member clubs provide both its members and the community at large, whether drinking or not, with excellent transport options and information.

Clubs have found the most effective way of ensuring their members are transported safely has been to put in place courtesy coaches and where applicable offer alternative means of transport.

However clubs have been impeded by the inability to recover operating costs from the people using our courtesy coaches. This is because there is no provision in any act for them to charge for this service in order to recover or assist with costs.

All clubs are after is the ability to fully recover costs of safely conveying members from their homes to Chartered Clubs and vice versa.

Summary

The Chartered Club has been part of the New Zealand Community for many years. We have gone about our business looking after the communities we live in and providing them and their families with many services and support at no cost. Our commitment to responsible consumption of alcohol is not just a statement we have recently been recognised by the health authorities for our commitment to training focussed on ensuring that our members welfare and well being is attended to at all times. Our policies and procedures are robust and have stood the test of time.

We accept that change in the laws regulating alcohol consumption was and is needed. We will continue to work with the law makers to help effect change but ask that you consider our good history and experience in the hospitality industry when making decisions about the Chartered Club near you. Because there will be one. As there is one in just about every community."