relaxing of alcohol restrictions on public holidays has cleared the last legislative hurdle<\/a> and will come into force in time for Easter weekend.<\/p>\nThe member’s bill that allows premises that are already open on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Anzac Day morning, and Christmas Day to sell alcohol under normal licence conditions received Royal Assent today.<\/p>\n
Bottle shops will still have to stay closed, and supermarket alcohol restrictions remain.<\/p>\n
The bill was put forward by Labour MP Kieran McAnulty.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the third reading, McAnulty told the House the bill would clear up the guesswork for hospitality staff in deciding what was a “substantial” meal to serve before someone could purchase alcohol, by removing the requirement entirely.<\/p>\n
The issue was a conscience vote and MPs voted 66 votes in favour, 56 against in Parliament on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
ACT voted as a bloc in support, while all New Zealand First and Green MPs opposed the bill.<\/p>\n
The changes mean bars and pubs will no longer be forced to close at midnight tonight, or wait until 12.01 on Saturday morning to open.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\nAssociate Justice Minister Nicole McKee
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n
The change will provide regulatory relief and clarity for the hospitality sector, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee said.<\/p>\n
“This is a practical fix that removes confusion and inconsistency between alcohol laws and shop trading restrictions.<\/p>\n
“It also removes outdated requirements at restaurants and cafes for customers to order a ‘substantial meal’, and restrictions preventing alcohol from being served more than an hour before or after eating.”<\/p>\n
McKee said businesses that hold an on-licence can now operate under their normal licence conditions across Good Friday and Easter Sunday, as well as Anzac Day morning and Christmas Day.<\/p>\n
“We are aware of some businesses that have been planning to open or host events this weekend, but have had concerns raised about whether doing so would be lawful, or whether they can even promote events that are conditional on the law being passed.<\/p>\n
“This change makes it clear: those businesses can now proceed with confidence that they can operate under their normal licence conditions, without fear of falling foul of the law.”<\/p>\n
Regulatory agencies knew about the changes and would apply the new law from midnight tonight.<\/p>\n
McKee said the change provides long-overdue certainty for the sector.<\/p>\n
“This is huge for hospitality, especially after a rough few years, and something I’ve been keen to see fixed for some time.”<\/p>\n
ACT MP Cameron Luxton was responsible for the amendment ensuring bars and pubs can continue trading past midnight.<\/p>\n
He was motivated after realising the opening night of Christchurch’s new Te Kaha Stadium would have been cut short by the laws as they stood.<\/p>\n
“It would have made no sense to undermine that opportunity during the opening weekend, when 10 Super Rugby teams and tens of thousands of supporters will be in town, simply because the day after opening falls on Anzac Day.”<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Justice has published guidance on its website for those involved in the alcohol regulatory system.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: RNZ The relaxing of alcohol restrictions on public holidays has cleared the last legislative hurdle and will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-360337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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