Big guns join call to alter boozing culture | Northland News | Local News in Northland

Whangarei Mayor Stan Semenoff has some heavyweight support for his long fight against alcohol at "pocket money prices".

He says the low cost of liquor encourages a binge drinking culture among young people.

Former Governor-General Sir Paul Reeves led a group of knights, dames, archbishops and sports people to Parliament last week to urge liquor law reform.

The Government is considering its response to the Law Commission's report on the sale and supply of liquor and the group told MPs alcohol abuse was a crisis destroying lives and cultures.

Using the conscience vote in Parliament to decide liquor law was no longer acceptable, they said.

Mr Semenoff urged parliamentarians to heed the words of the prominent figures.

 "They are asking for alcohol to be less accessible and affordable to our youth, and there are measures Parliament can easily adopt to achieve this," he said.

"Alcohol at pocket money prices is encouraging a binge drinking culture which is harming many New Zealanders. If eminent Kiwis are prepared to speak up about it, then Parliament should be prepared to back them up and take action"

Whangarei was among centres the Law Commission visited  to study alcohol problems, after which commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer said he had witnessed scenes that "are not ones a civilised society can relish".

"There were scenes of chaos and disorder," Sir Geoffrey said. "I was surprised by it. We all were. I did not realise the extent of the disorder and the burden on police resources."

For the past two years Mr Semenoff has campaigned for a two-tier drinking age where 18-year-olds could drink supervised on licensed premises, but off-licence sales would be restricted to those 20 and over.

He said Parliament should take note of a six-week pilot programme run in the Scottish town of Amadale in 2008. When off-licences there were banned from selling alcohol to people under 21 after 5pm, police reported a 57 per cent reduction in assaults and a 54 per cent fall in vandalism.

"New Zealanders want to see civilisation returned to the streets in our town centres. We must tackle the youth binge drinking culture, and liquor laws must be reviewed with an eye to reducing alcohol's accessibility and affordability to teens," Mr Semenoff said.

Twelve New Zealand teenagers had died from binge drinking in the past three years.

Mr Semenoff said Parliament could not ignore these tragic deaths and nor could it ignore revered New Zealanders who recognised the present liquor laws were harming society.

"I am personally grateful that our community's leaders have put their hands up to protect our families from the harm alcohol is causing," he said.