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One of the ironies of the current liquor law is that some grocers have a perverse incentive to become liquor stores if they want to stay in business.
Manukau City Council licensing inspector Paul Radich says some stores could keep their licences if they simply stopped calling themselves grocery stores and converted into straight liquor stores, which do not have to sell anything except liquor.
"The danger is that they will all convert into liquor stores. That's something we are going to have to monitor," he says. "As stupid as it is, it's easier to become a liquor store than to become a grocery store selling liquor. That is because of current Government legislation."
That legislation will change under the Sale and Supply of Liquor and Liquor Enforcement Bill which National has inherited from the Labour Government.
The bill will allow local councils to formulate "local alcohol plans" governing hours of liquor sales, where outlets may be located, a maximum density for outlets and their distance from places such as schools.
The bill does not specify whether "density" would be defined in terms of population or geographical area, leaving this to be decided by each council unless MPs amend the bill to be more specific. This could be important because Manukau, for example, has the country's second-lowest density of liquor outlets to population, but the seventh-highest density per square kilometre.
Manukau City Council and the Alcohol Advisory Council (Alac) have commissioned independent research on the impacts of liquor outlets on local areas of Manukau and a possible model for compiling and assessing information that can be used in other areas.
Mr Radich says the council will definitely adopt a local alcohol plan if the new bill is passed and that it is likely to include "a sinking lid or a cap" on liquor outlets.
