Communities Push Back Against Proposed Alcohol Reforms

Layla
Bailey-McDowell, Māori News
Journalist

This article has been updated to clarify
the wording around license renewals and local alcohol
policies, and how alcohol can be sold in certain settings. A
line has also been added to clarify the law, as drafted,
would only allow alcohol to be served at hairdressers and
barbers and would be limited to only one serving per day
(150ml of wine, 330ml of beer).

Concerns are
growing among health providers and whānau about the
governments proposed alcohol reforms, with warnings they
could increase harm in vulnerable communities.

A young
māmā from East Auckland says the reforms feel like “profit
over people”, and “a slap in the face”, especially for
advocates who have worked hard to decrease alcohol
visibility in their rohe.

Twenty-five-year-old Tiana
Kiro is calling for the Sale
and Supply of Alcohol (Improving Alcohol Regulation)
Amendment Bill to be scrapped, after it was introduced
to Parliament in March by Associate Justice Minister Nicole
McKee and Regulation Minister David Seymour.

Kiro, who
was born and raised in Glen Innes, said liquor stores were
part
of “everyday life” growing up and she did not want the
same for her pēpi.

“For my community, alcohol is
everywhere,” she told RNZ.

“When I left my whare every
day to go to school, it was at every corner. It was
normalised like milk, sugar, bread.”

The mother of
one, who is expecting another baby, said that environment
shaped the people around her.

“I don’t want that
around my babies. I don’t want it normalised.”

She
said the proposed reforms risked embedding that even
further.

“To me, that looks like putting profit before
people.”

What are the proposed reforms?

The
government says the bill aims to reduce red tape, make it
easier for businesses to obtain licences, and trust adults
to make their own choices.

Key changes
include:

• Limiting objections to licence
  applications or renewals to only those living or working in
  the same council area, or within 1 kilometre of the proposed
  licensed premises.
• Allowing licence applicants to
  respond to objections
• Preventing licence renewals
  being declined solely because a local alcohol policy has
  changed
• Expanding who can sell alcohol, including
  clubs and some restaurants
• Making it easier to host
  events with alcohol
• Allowing licensed venues to open
  outside normal hours for major events – like the Rugby World
  Cup
• Letting barbers and hairdressers offer limited
  alcohol without a licence
• Expanding tasting rules
  beyond wineries
• Simplifying rules for low and zero
  alcohol options
• Clarifying responsibilities for
  alcohol delivery services

McKee said the changes
would make the system “fairer” and less bureaucratic, while
Seymour said adults in a “free society” should be trusted to
make their own choices.

The bill is expected to be
considered by Parliament in the coming months.

A 2024
report by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research
estimated alcohol-related harm cost Aotearoa around $9.1
billion annually, including about 900 deaths, 1250
cancers, and tens of thousands of
hospitalisations.

Māori experienced disproportionate
harm and are more than twice as likely to die from
alcohol-related causes than non-Māori. Māori were also
more likely to be apprehended by police for an offence
that involved alcohol.

Tamariki Māori were also
exposed to alcohol
marketing significantly more often than Pākehā
children.

Research showed this was closely linked to
environmental factors, including higher exposure to alcohol
outlets, greater levels of deprivation and reduced access to
health services.

In a statement to RNZ, McKee said the
$9.1 billion figure cited by critics was “a gross cost
estimate that tells us nothing about which specific
policies reduce harm or at what cost.”

“Good
policy requires that discipline. We should be asking whether
each rule is delivering measurable harm reduction
proportionate to its costs, and removing those that
aren’t.

“The single biggest driver of that figure is
fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which accounts for $4.8
billion of the total. FASD is a serious harm and the
government is taking it seriously, directing more of the
alcohol levy toward identifying and funding cost-effective
interventions to reduce it.”

McKee said licensed
premises were controlled environments with trained staff and
legal obligations, and making it easier for people to drink
in those settings could reduce harm compared to unsupervised
drinking.

She also rejected concerns the reforms would
silence communities.

“Everyone will continue to
maintain the ability to object to liquor licences and
renewals in their local community,” she said.

“Our
changes are about stopping those who are not impacted, such
as people on the other side of the country, or even
overseas, from objecting.”

McKee said the reforms also
strengthened rules around alcohol delivery and aimed to
improve access to zero-alcohol alternatives.

“Every
New Zealander deserves policy focused on what actually
reduces harm. That is the standard these reforms are held
to, and it is the right standard for all New Zealanders
regardless of their background.”

The government says
communities will still be able to object to licenses in
their local area, and that changes are intended to reduce
unnecessary barriers while maintaining safeguards.

But
critics say the reforms weaken safeguards and prioritise
economic growth over public health, especially in
communities where access “is already a problem,” pointing to
evidence linking alcohol availability to higher levels of
harm.

“In our town centre alone, there’s like three or
four liquor stores, and we’re not even that big,” Kiro
said.

She also raised concerns about proposals to
allow alcohol in spaces like barbershops, claiming she had
experienced this already in some settings.

The law, as
drafted, would allow alcohol to be served at hairdressers
and barbers and would be limited to only one serving per
day. (150ml of wine, 330mll of beer).

“For some
people, it’s not easy to say no. Someone might have a few
drinks and then get behind the wheel, and then who do you
blame? Profit over people, that’s what it feels
like.”

For kaupapa Māori provider Ki Tua o Matariki,
those experiences reflected what they were hearing
across their communities.

Chief executive Zoe
Witika-Hawke said the reforms risked deepening existing
inequities.

“These changes might seem small on their
own, but together they make alcohol more present in our
everyday environments, and that matters.

“We know
alcohol outlets are more concentrated in lower-income
communities, while access to health support is often more
limited.

“That imbalance shapes the environments our
whānau are living in every day.”

She said alcohol
harm was not just about individual choice.

“It’s
shaped by how available it is, where it shows up, and what
becomes normal.”

Witika-Hawke pointed to the impact of
alcohol harm on future generations, including FASD,
a lifelong condition caused by prenatal alcohol
exposure.

“Every increase in alcohol availability
increases risk, particularly for māmā hapū navigating
stress and systemic barriers.”

Te Whatu Ora estimated
1800 to 3000 babies every year may be affected by FASD.
That’s roughly eight babies per day.

“We need to be
clear, this is not about blaming māmā. Stigma has never
prevented harm. Safe environments and strong support systems
do.”

Witika-Hawke said communities had already been
clear about what they wanted.

“They don’t want alcohol
shops everywhere in their communities.”

Hāpai Te
Hauora chief operating officer Jason Alexander said the
reforms ignored strong evidence linking alcohol availability
to harm.

“Anything that makes alcohol more accessible
and visible will inevitably cause more harm,” he told
RNZ.

“We know that people’s hauora is affected by the
environment in which they live. If alcohol is more
accessible, then people will access it more.”

He said
alcohol harm extended beyond just the
individual.

“Alcohol harm doesn’t happen in isolation.
It is shaped by the environments we create, how widely
alcohol is available, how it’s marketed, and how many
outlets operate in a community.”

Restricting
objections to licences, he said, limited community
voice.

“Communities obviously have a right to have
their voice heard. This bill does limit those rights,
especially with the boundaries that they’re bringing in to
determine who can and cannot have a say. I think some of the
other changes around stopping licences being declined at
renewal simply because the LAP [local alcohol policy] has
changed.”

“LAPs are usually designed with communities
so that they can create localised policies within those
communities. So by saying that a licence can’t be designed
because the LAPs have changed is essentially silencing the
voices of those communities that have influenced those local
alcohol policies.”

Alcohol Healthwatch executive
director Andrew Galloway told RNZ the scale of alcohol harm
was significant in Aotearoa, and that the reforms appeared
to remove effective protections.

“It does seem like
that is giving the alcohol
industry a wish list of changes,” he said.

“We
know that when alcohol becomes more available, these
increases are strongly linked to increased hazardous
drinking.”

“We also see higher rates of cancer, and we
know there is no safe limit.”

Polling commissioned by
Health Coalition Aotearoa and the Cancer Society found 76
percent of respondents supported limits on the number of
alcohol outlets in neighbourhoods.

“So changes that
reduce community say, go directly against that support,” he
said.

“We’re really disappointed that this package
introduces very few restrictions and more
liberalisation.”

Galloway said the direction of the
reforms contradicted other government strategies, including
suicide
prevention efforts that put an emphasis on reducing
alcohol harm.

“It just makes logical sense that we
would look to restrict alcohol, not make it more
available.”

Pre-colonisation, Māori were among the
few known societies not to have manufactured or used
alcohol – or psychoactive substances.

Quoted by
Rev. W J Williams, ‘In the Beginning. Period up to 1886’,
“The white man and the whisky bottle came to New Zealand
together.”

The Māori word for alcohol is ‘waipiro’,
translating to ‘stinking water’.

Witika-Hawke told
RNZ, alcohol was used as a tool to take away their land –
specifically in their iwi Ngāti Paoa.

“We’ve worked
really hard to tell another story about our relationship
with alcohol. And the alcohol industry has really, I think,
picked on us in regards to ensuring that we’re trapped in
the thinking of alcohol as part of who we are.

“It’s
not part of who we are. It wasn’t part of who we were prior
to colonisation. And returning to that state of health where
it isn’t in our communities, I think, is the journey that we
all want, and need, so that we remain healthy and don’t go
back to a place where alcohol is thought to be who we
are.”

At a time where fuel prices and the costs of
living increases, Kiro said many whānau are already under
pressure, and changes like these revert away from the
issue.

“We’ve got bigger things to worry about, rent,
food, petrol,” she said. “And now you’re adding more alcohol
into the mix.”

She said addiction was a reality in
many communities.

“Unless you’ve actually been around
it, you don’t understand how hard it is.

“We’re not
saying no alcohol forever… We’re saying stop
oversaturating communities that are already
struggling.

“Do I need seven liquor stores in my
community? No, not really.”

She said whānau had spent
years advocating for change, only to feel
ignored.

“It’s a bit of a slap in the face. We did the
mahi. We showed up. We told them what’s happening in our
communities.

“And now it feels like they’re not
listening.

“If they don’t listen now, by the time they
realise something’s gone wrong, it’s going to be too
late.”

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