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Opinion by Josephine Bartley
Josephine Bartley is an Auckland councillor and chairs the Regulatory and Safety Committee.
Bars, restaurants and nightclubs outside the central city must stop serving alcohol at 3am.
The second go-live stage of Auckland’s new local alcohol policy takes effect today. This means, from today, you’ll see changes to the hours that alcohol can be sold at off-licences, on-licences and clubs.
It feels like this policy is right for Auckland, right now. When it was announced in the council chamber, there was a round of applause, and community groups and businesses alike have been getting behind it across Tāmaki Makaurau.
At off-licences, such as bottle shops and supermarkets, alcohol sales now end at 9pm.
Bars and restaurants with relevant licences from the District Licensing Committee can sell alcohol up to 4am in the city centre, and 3am outside the city centre. Sports clubs and RSAs can sell alcohol until 1am if already permitted to do this by the District Licensing Committee.
The policy does not impact trading hours for special licences for festivals and events. These continue to be assessed by the District Licensing Committee, as they are now.
Getting the local alcohol policy across the line is such a positive win for our communities and the council has been fighting for this on their behalf for a long time. The purpose of the policy is to reduce alcohol-related harm, so it’s encouraging to see it coming into effect.
Before the policy was adopted, Auckland Council carried out a thorough consultation with the public, including workshops with residents, businesses, community groups and other stakeholders.
This was where communities told us they needed us to step in and do something about the harmful impact alcohol can have on their whānau, their friends and all Aucklanders.
We worked with them to shape an impactful policy that remained fair and reasonable for businesses by putting them on a level playing field.
We know that excessive alcohol can have a harmful effect on people’s lives. Research shows there is a strong correlation between the availability of alcohol and the incidence of alcohol-related harm. Evidence shows that most of the alcohol sold in New Zealand is out of off-licences.
We also know that certain parts of Auckland have high rates of alcohol-related harm.
Alcohol-related crime and disorder is at its worst between 9pm and 1am.
As a councillor, I see this first-hand. My inbox is often full of messages from concerned families living near parks, having to deal with carloads of people parked up drinking at all hours of the night after picking up their boxes of alcohol from the local neighbourhood liquor store, and the ensuing anti-social behaviour, fighting, intimidation, loud noise and littering with the takeaways rubbish left behind.
I’ve also seen this from my time in the past doing community patrols. Drinking in public is a serious issue. We had a community meeting about safety and people consistently raised the issue of “too many liquor stores”.
At off-licences, such as bottle shops and supermarkets, alcohol sales now end at 9pm.
Why is it that some of our neighbourhoods have more liquor stores than others?
How is this acceptable and allowed to happen?
Reducing the hours that alcohol is available, as well as the number of places it can be purchased, means it is less easy to access.
The typical closing time for off-licence premises in Auckland was 11pm, and across the Auckland region, alcohol-related crime and disorder is at its worst between 9pm and 1am.
The council has fought on behalf of its communities to get this policy across the line for almost a decade.
What started as a standard policy consultation and submissions process soon turned into a legal battle between the council and supermarkets that ended up lasting for eight years. In 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and awarded costs to the council.
It is a positive win to now have a local alcohol policy, but I do wonder why it had to take so long to respond to what communities have been crying out for.
The policy was introduced in stages, to give businesses and their customers time to prepare for the changes. Since the policy was adopted in August, we’ve been sharing information with businesses. We have sent out some materials to help them communicate the next stage with their customers if they’d like to, and are grateful for the support and understanding they have shown.
It’s positive that, after so long, we now have a local alcohol policy in place. We can build on this, and it gives us a chance to address new issues as we need to.
