West Aucklanders and some Southlanders face restrictions on where they can buy and publicly drink alcohol because of local licensing trusts. Photo / 123rf
West Aucklanders and some Southlanders face restrictions on where they can buy and publicly drink alcohol because of local licensing trusts. Photo / 123rf
Alcohol sales and public consumption are limited in West Auckland and parts of Southland because both areas have licensing trusts.
The trusts’ profits are put back into the community each year.
Act MP Simon Court has lodged a new member’s bill to have the last four remaining licensing trusts shut down, calling them a monopoly.
“Silly rules” limiting where West Aucklanders and some Southlanders can buy and publicly drink alcohol are in the sightlines of Act MP Simon Court.
The West Auckland-based list MP has lodged a new member’s bill to abolish licensing trusts and “treat Westies who want to have a drink like adults”.
“They limit choice and inflate prices. My bill would repeal the monopolies held by the Invercargill, Mataura, Waitākere and [West Auckland-based] Portage Licensing Trusts.
“It would break these communities free from silly rules and give entrepreneurial locals the ability to sell alcohol under the same rules that apply nationwide.”
The Invercargill trust (ILT) was set up in 1944, Mataura in 1955 and the two Auckland-based trusts in the 1970s to control the sale of alcohol in the area, with surplus profits to be reinvested back into the community.
No one from the West Auckland trusts could immediately be contacted this morning.
In Southland, among the most well-known projects supported by the ILT was helping kickstart the Zero Fees scheme for tertiary study that later became self-funding.
About $8 million was given to more than 300 community organisations each year, among more than $217m returned to the community since 1944, according to the ILT’s website.
More than $30m had gone back to its community, according to the Mataura Licensing Trust website.
Act MP Simon Court wants licensing trusts gone. Photo / Mark Mitchell
But Court told Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive the licensing trusts struggled to make a profit in the past few years. Overheads had gone up in Auckland from $3m or $4m a year to almost $14m, he said.
“If you actually lift the hood, 80% of their profits come from pokies, not from selling alcohol or having bars.”
There was also “no evidence” of less alcohol-related harm in West Auckland because of the trusts, he said.
People could order alcohol to be delivered to their door, or order from a supermarket through click and collect, but couldn’t buy it in the supermarket.
Almost 300,000 people, and rapidly growing, lived in West Auckland but the area was served by only eight venues licensed as taverns or hotels, he said.
“[That’s] one for every 37,000 residents. In Auckland as a whole, there’s one venue for every 3900 people.
“Not only are we lacking choice but there’s a huge opportunity here in terms of jobs and economy … Westies spend over $100m a year on hospitality outside of West Auckland.”
The Commerce Commission was meant to be “smashing monopolies”, Court told Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive.
“Unfortunately we’ve got this law that we’re enforcing a monopoly on liquor licensing. We’re gonna open that up and give Westies and the people of Southland their freedom back.”
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