As part of the right’s never ending pursuit of confusion and diversion we have a proposal surface recently to address what they obviously think is the country’s most pressing problem. Not falling income from Dairy exports, not child poverty or increasing unemployment, not the failure to address increasing greenhouse gas emissions, but the ability to drink in any bar at any time when the All Blacks are playing during the Rugby World Cup..
Pubs look set to stay open in the early hours of the Rugby World Cup after the Prime Minister confirmed the Government would pick up a bill that flopped in Parliament.
ACT leader David Seymour tabled a bill on Tuesday that sought to allow pubs to open outside of legal trading hours to show matches being played in the United Kingdom.
But the Green Party objected with co-leader James Shaw accusing Seymour of trying to boost his profile.
Now John Key has come to the party and said he has spoken with Justice Minister Amy Adams who was drafting a bill.
The Government only needs 61 votes to get it over the line, and with everyone but the Greens supporting the idea it’s a sure bet.
The issue has allowed the Government to engage in a bit of Green bashing.
Seymour branded the Greens “party poopers” after they objected to his bill and accused them of being “spiteful” and “opposed to fun”.
Key wasn’t surprised they objected and described it as “par for the course”.
The Greens were “always opposed to anything that’s sort of vaguely good fun,” he said.
The Green objection is more nuanced than the way it has been presented. From Morning Report:
The Green Party says it blocked the attempt to introduce the proposed legislation because it was too broad and had the potential to cause real harm to communities.
Green MP Kevin Hague said it would have given a blanket exemption for all licensed premises to serve alcohol at a time of day that was deemed inappropriate when they applied for their original licence.
We have licensing laws for very good reasons. The unfettered access to alcohol any time of the day or night can result in social problems. And what may be acceptable in Downtown Auckland may be totally unacceptable in the suburbs. This is why we have licensing laws and licensing authorities that make those case by case decisions.
In the absence of any evidence of need the Government wants to suspend the work of Parliament to pass a law to allow more drinking. And in the process it has engaged in a bit of Green bashing.
Are we in that bad a state that the most important issue we are facing is being able to facilitate the further drinking of beer during a rugby game?
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