The Alcohol Reform Bill as it has now passed through its second reading in parliament.  It is currently standing in 7th position on the government's order paper awaiting to be debated by the 'Whole of Committee' before it has its 3rd and final reading.  This is unlikely to happen before the elections in November.  The Whole of Committee debate will be the last chance for any amendments to be made to the bill before it is enacted.

While the Alcohol Reform Bill passes through parliament, the Liquor Licensing Authority has been kept very busy issuing sactions to establishments across the country.

A 30 per cent jump in sanctions against bars and liquor stores nationwide includes 421 managers suspended and 31 permanently kicked out of the industry in the past year.

The Liquor Licensing Authority (LLA) is under pressure as a result of increased enforcement, with its head warning the authority "would grind to a halt" if it was not for its dedicated staff.

The jump in sanctions is revealed in the LLA annual report just tabled in Parliament, which shows license suspensions up from 244 last year to 306 this year. Manager's certificates suspended jumped from 370 to 421.

Overall, the LLA was asked to take action mostly by police - 1006 times, up from 775 last year.

"This is a result of an increased awareness by the police that liquor abuse is a prime generator of crime," the LLA report says.

Chairman of the authority, District Court Judge John Hole, said the authority had been through "a busy year".

The main reasons it had managed to keep control of its increasing workload were the efficiency and dedication of a small secretariat.

"Without its well qualified and ever-willing staff, the authority would grind to a halt," Mr Hole said.

Police acting national alcohol programme manager Inspector Fiona Prestidge said a graduated approach was used before formal enforcement against liquor licensees.

"A simple case might be that a very intoxicated person is found on a licensed premises by police ... that's not acceptable in the sense that a manager should have removed a heavily intoxicated person from their premises," Ms Presticlge said.

An officer would follow up and make sure training was up to scratch in recognising intoxication.

"We're trying to work with them to achieve that but should there be repeats, other examples coming to our notice of issues and we're not satisfied that they're being properly managed, then enforcement action will take place."

Police had not pushed a particular plan for more enforcement action but there had been extra training of officers working on alcohol issues.

(SOURCE: John Hartevelt - Dominion Post, 27 September 2011)