The Justice and Electoral Select Committee has examined the Alcohol Reform Bill and recommends that it be passed with the committee's 130 substantive changes to clauses. A number of these changes are recommendations outlined in the Clubs New Zealand submission to the Select Committee and the small changes that have been recommended shows that our submission and meetings with influential MPs has had the desired effect.

The Government has agreed to take up all of the committee's recommendations through to the Bill's 2nd Reading, Whole of Committee and 3rd and final reading in Parliament between now and early 2012.

This provides the Board of Clubs New Zealand time to analyse the Bill in the form that it is likely to take through to the enactment and decipher the changes from the current act and the affects this will have with our member clubs operations in the future.

Apart from the opportunity to seek clarification on a few issues, it is now up to the parliamentarians to debate the bill through to its enactment. Overall the Bill, as it stands, will provide our member clubs with a solid framework to build on into the future.

The Government has left the door open around minimum pricing. It is expected that the Government will make decisions on whether a minimum price will be implemented next year.

Some changes are recommended around advertising and sponsorship, especially proposing to strengthen the current offence relating to the irresponsible promotion of alcohol. Further restrictions on advertising and sponsorship will be considered by the expert forum.

There are more positives than negatives and some subtle changes to the current Act. These include:

DEFINITIONS

• In replacing Section 53 of the Sale of Liquor Act 1989 with Section 61 of the Alcohol Reform Act 2010 – Sale and Supply in Clubs to Members and Guests Only, new definitions will be introduced to replace the current definitions under the Sale of Liquor Act 1989 for     member, visitor and guests in relation to premises a club licence is held for.

  The new definitions are:

o Authorised Customer – means a person who

a) Is a member of the club concerned; or

b) Is on the premises at the invitation of, and accompanied by, a member of the club concerned; or

c) Is an authorised visitor

o Authorised Visitor – means a member of some other club with which the club concerned has an arrangement for reciprocal visiting rights

o Member – in relation to a club, means a person who

a) Has expressly agreed in writing to comply with the club's rules; and

b) Is recognised as a member of the club by those rules.

• Introducing new meanings of 'Ages for Sale and Purchase of Alcohol on Licensed Premises' and separating this from the definition of a minor which will only relate to restriction of persons in Supervised and Restricted Areas. Introducing an 'Approved Evidence of Age System' which will assist staff members in their duties.

• Introducing a comprehensive definition for 'Intoxicated' which will assist staff members in their duties.

• Changing the term 'legal guardian' to 'guardian' by virtue of the Care of Children Act 2004.

LICENSING CONDITIONS

• Introducing new clauses on water being freely available to customers.

• Defining the meaning of 'No bring-your-own alcohol' in clubs. The holder of a licence must ensure that, while the premises are open for the sale or supply of alcohol, no person consumes on the premises any alcohol not sold or supplied on the premises by the licensee.

TRADING HOURS

• Introducing new national maximum trading hours for Club Licences between 8am – 4am. Most clubs presently are limited to 1am closing. However LAPs will most probably reduce these back to the current operating hours.

• Clubs will be able to maintain the operation of their Club Licences on Anzac Day; Good Friday; Easter Sunday and Christmas Day.

• Expanding on the requirement for provision of food for consumption on the premises at all times when the premises are open for the sale and supply of alcohol to include: a reasonable range of food; in portions suitable for a single customer; at reasonable prices and within a reasonable time of being ordered.

LOCAL ALCOHOL POLICIES

• Introducing Local Alcohol Policies that imposes conditions on Club and Off Licences around operating hours and access to the sale and supply of alcohol for consumption that may differ to the Act.

• Introducing new one-way door restrictions in local alcohol policies to be complied with by the holder of a Club Licence.

• Including a clause to ensure that local alcohol policies (LAPs) must not include policies on any matter not relating to licensing. This is a turnaround from the first draft of the Bill.

SALE AND SUPPLY OF ALCOHOL FOR CONSUMPTION

• Redefining the range of persons under a Club Licence and Off-Licence who can utilise our member club facilities for the sale and supply for consumption of alcohol with the introduction of new definitions including an 'Authorised Customer' and 'Authorised Visitor'.

• Increasing the opportunity for visitors from clubs with reciprocal visiting rights to invite other persons to accompany the visitor to a club other than their own – subject to a licence condition.

• Increasing the range of persons who can purchase Off-Licence alcohol to include a person on the premises at the invitation of a club member.

• Allowing 18 – 19 year olds to only be able to purchase and consume alcohol on a licensed premise such as a club. This will be subject to a conscience vote by the sitting MP's and It's likely that MPs will table SOPs during the committee stage of the bill for the purchase age to remain at 18 or be raised to 20. Parliament would therefore be voting on a range of options for the purchase age.

SPECIAL LICENCES

• Introducing two new forms of Special Licences: on-site and off-site. There is also a clause allowing additional conditions to be added to a Special Licence. This will need to be carefully monitored to ensure the TA doesn't take advantage of this clause to introduce conditions that have nothing to do with the sale and supply of alcohol for consumption under the Special Licence.

• Introducing consideration of an application for a special licence filed less that 20 working days before the day on which he event concerned begins, if satisfied that the need for a special licence could not be reasonably have been foreseen earlier. This will cover Funerals held in the club.

OFF LICENCE

There are a few changes that will apply some restrictions to some clubs holding Off-Licences in the future. This is in line with the Government's determination to reduce the number of Off-Licences throughout the country. It should also be noted that the ability for clubs to obtain an Off-Licence is a relatively new occurrence and was contested in the Laking Paper prior to the 1989 Act which proposed that no clubs have the right to hold an Off-Licence.

The new Bill includes clauses that:

• Allows a club to hold an Off-Licence and have it renewed if it has continuously held an Off-Licence since before the commencement of this section (of the Act).

• Only allows the issue of an Off-Licence to be issued to the Licensing Trust for any premises in a Trust District unless and until a competition proposal is carried out. Clarification may need to be sort for those Clubs that have already won a competition proposal to determine whether they can retain their Off-Licence.

• Off-Licence operations will be limited between the hours of 7am – 11pm which would fit into most of our member clubs current Off-Licence operating hours.

LICENCE CONTROLS

• Including a clause for the Licensing Authority or Licensing Committee concerned to refuse the issuing of a licence even if no objection was filed against the application for it and no report was filed opposing the application.

• Including updated procedures for cancelling Licences and Manager's Certificates.

OFFENCES

• Including an updated fines regime around intoxicated persons including new fines around Managers and Employees being intoxicated on duty.

• Including updated powers of Police and lnspectors including powers to suspend or cancel licences.

FEES

• Including doing anything reasonable to ensure that, as far as practicable, the total costs of licensing authority (including the costs of inspectors, and the cost of enforcement activities ) and the total cost to territorial authorities of licensing committees, are recovered out of fees and;

• The cost of the licensing authority and the costs of the territorial authorities of licensing committees, incurred in relation to the performance of particular functions are recovered out of the fees payable in respect of the performance of those functions.

• Including the provision for different fees to be payable in respect of the performance of the same functions in relation to different premises, on the basis of factors such as:

o The kinds of premises involved

o The capacity and likely patronage of the premises

o The trading hours (or intended trading hours) of the premises

o Any actual or proposed activities, arrangements or systems that may reduce the risk of alcohol related harm arising from the operation of the premises

o The previous conduct or performance of the licensee or proposed licensee (or any person involved or likely to be involved in the operation of the premises with or on behalf of the licensee or proposed licensee), whether in relation to the premises concerned or in relation to other premises

o May prescribe maximum or minimum fees

o May provide for full or partial refunds of fees in the case of clerical error or a change in the level of fees prescribed

o May prescribe annual fees

o May prescribe a penalty fee for late payment

o May provide for the full or partial waiver of fees in the case of particular financial hardship of the persons required to pay them

o May prescribe the manner in which fees are to be collected or paid

MANAGERS

• Introducing only one type of Manager's Certificate for persons over the age of 20 with an appropriate, robust qualification.

• To ensure this change will not impact on current employment arrangements, anyone under 20 with active manager's certificates will be able to continue to work as a manager when the change comes into force.

• Introducing transitional provisions for Club Manager's Certificates allowing every person deemed to hold a manager's certificate who, immediately before the commencement of this section (of the Act), holds a current club manager's certificate or general manager's certificate under the Sale of Liquor Act 1989.

• The certificate that the person is deemed to hold continues in force until it expires under the Sale of Liquor Act 1989.

• On expiry of the certificate a district licensing committee may issue a limited renewal certificate that is valid for 1 year.

• On the expiry of the limited renewal certificate, the licensing committee may deem it to be a manager's certificate issued under this Act if it is satisfied that its holder meets the qualifications prescribed in section 202.

PERMANENT CHARTERS

There are no changes to the operation of Permanent Charters in the new Act.

Clubs New Zealand's recommendation for a form of mediation between the club and licensing committee has not been included into the Bill.