Nicole McKee: Associate Justice Minister on the new alcohol regulation shake-up set to impact businesses

The Government hopes businesses will be in favour of an alcohol regulation shake-up.

It's allowing breweries and wineries to have both an on and off license - and is also letting businesses respond to objections around them having a license.

Objections need to come from the local community.

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee says it's important for people to have concerns to have a real voice - but there's been plenty of outside perspectives.

"The majority of New Zealanders that drink, drink responsibly. And I want to make sure they have the opportunity to do that. We want to re-grow our sector, it means also having tourism and having people being able to go out there and enjoy a night out."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afternoon. The government is loosening liquor licensing rules. Only locals
will now be able to object, and ministers will be
able to invene with intervene without legislation for major televised events.
Nicole McKee is the Associate Justice ministan with US Now.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey, Nicole, good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Were you getting objections from outside the local area?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yes, we were. In fact, I had one bar owner
that told me he received an objection that came from
the United Kingdom, so it was more than just being
outside of their local territorial authority areas.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Why is anyone in the UK interested?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, that's a really good question, and I think that's
why we need to look to limit who can object.
We want to make sure that the serious concerns are
able to be voiced by those within the community, but
it should be those within the territorial authorities which make
the decisions that should be able to make those objections.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Is it someone who is anti liquor? Is that kind
of thing?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, I never got down to who it was. I
was more gobsmacked that it came from over.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, what about the police approach to it? Because a
lot of the problems have been caused by the fact
that the police are really keen to shut the stuff down.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, and I can understand why they're really keen to
shut some stuff down, but I've had to find a
balance here and I thought it was really important to
do so. The majority of New Zealanders that drink drink responsibly,
and I want to make sure that they have the
opportunity to do that. We want to regrow our sector,
so it means also having tourism, having people been able
to go out there and enjoy a night out. And

(01:30):
while we have some harm stop people from getting out
there and socializing, we need some good stories in the news.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, totally. Well, why the ministerial intervention for major televised events.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, this really is so that we can go out
there and celebrate good things like Rugby World Cup without
having to do a legislative change or order in council
every single time. So we're basically saying, if there's a
big event like the Rugby World Karpa, something that's happening
that's outside of our time zones, the pubs can open.
Have seen success with that in the past, and we're

(02:03):
basically saying ministers can do that again. In the future
without having to go through the ordering council and cabinet
process to make it happen.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
And one of the other things that you're doing is
the online verification of age. What are you changing here?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yes, we're making sure that the digital identity credentials can
be used as evidence of age documents once we get
that framework up and running. So we're future proofing the
way that we can check ID into the future. And
this means that deliveries of alcohol at home, those rapid deliveries,
for example, can be easily verified and checked upon when

(02:37):
somebody places an order.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Is this the same kind of verification that you'd be
able to use for social media? It may be.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
But in saying that hither, I we know that party
are not in agreement with the restrictions on social media,
and I know you are. Our concern is how do
you enforce it? But let's not say no to everything.
Let's see what this framework can develop or not it
can be utilized internationally as well.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Good stuff, Hey, Nicole, Thanks so much, Nicole McKee, Associate
Justice Minister. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen
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