Te Ropu Wahine Maori Toko I Te Ora Te Aiorangi Branch Submission to the Justice and Electoral committee on the Alcohol Reform Bill
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 Te Aiorangi Branch of the Maori Women s Welfare league welcome this opportunity to make comments on the justice and Electoral Select Committee inquiry into the Alcohol Reform Bill. 2. As a Branch our members who work in the health arena, deal at the flax roots and see the outcomes alcohol does to their clients. They see how the four cornerstones of wellbeing and the effects to whanau..like many other New Zealanders, we are becoming increasingly concerned; about the harm caused by the excessive consumption of alcohol in New Zealand. We also unanimously agree that the attitudes and behaviours of the excessive drinking culture in New Zealand needs to change but we disagree with the intense focus of this Bill on the youth population, because fewer than 10 percent of the heavy drinkers in New Zealand are under the age of 20 years. Given that half of the Maori population is aged under 24 years, it would appear that this bill is disproportionately targeting Maori and creating inequalities for specific ethnic population groups without addressing the real problem of excessive drinking culture across all age groups in Aotearoa We strongly recommend that you provide access to culturally appropriate, well resourced treatment programmes for Maori youth. 3. Te Aiorangi Branch totally supports, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, through Te Runanga o Aotearoa who represents our Maori health professional members and provides a lead voice for Maori nursing and Maori health in Aotearoa New Zealand. We have a shared vision; Freed to care, Proud to nurse, and our strategic aims include being a lead voice for Maori health in Aotearoa New Zealand, strengthening our own bicultural partnership and opposing injustice and inequality wherever it impacts upon the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders. Our members enhance the health and wellbeing of all people of Aotearoa New Zealand and are united in their professional and industrial aspirations to achieve a safe, sustainable and accessible system of public health care for all New Zealanders. Te Runanga,
membership comprises registered, enrolled and student nurses, and midwives; and includes kaimahi hauora, health care workers and allied health professionals with a current membership of 3050. 4. Te Aiorangi Branch strongly urges the select committee to address the extent of heavy drinking by, raising the price of alcohol; reducing the ever present accessibility and advertising of alcohol. Putting warning labels on alcohol Korero 5 Te Aiorangi Branch are proud to have been part of the Alcohol Action Campaign, and supported professor Doug Sellman recommendations in particular putting an end to: Cheap alcohol beginning with the minimum price for a standard drink Highly normalised and accessible alcohol, by restoring supermarkets to being alcohol free. All alcohol advertising and sponsorship, except objective printed product information Legal drunk driving by reducing the adult blood alcohol level to at least 0.05
Inequalities in the health burden of alcohol 6. Alcohol has had a destructive impact on the health of Maori population in Aotearoa New Zealand since its introduction in the early 1800s by European settlers, whalers and other immigrants.iii The impact that alcohol played in the loss of communal land for Maori with the move of Maori to the cities for employment and the breakup of whanau deprives them of the social support and values to handle alcohol responsibly. Alcohol has disrupted Maori cultural norms, values and traditions. (NZNO /TRO )Submission) 7. Te Aiorangi Branch is well aware that Maori across all ages experience disproportionate harm from alcohol, including: approximately three quarters of Maori adults aged 18 years and over identify themselves as drinkers, with about one third indentifying themselves as binge drinkers (a pattern of hazardous drinking where the most acute harm occurs); half of the Maori population is aged under 24 years, an age group in which a much higher level of alcohol related harm occurs; the prevalence of severe alcohol related problems amongst Maori individuals and Whanau is more than twice that amongst the non Maori population; and Maori are more likely to experience harm from their own or other people s drinking; and Maori are four times more likely than non Maori to die of an alcohol attributable condition. 8 We wish to draw your attention to the following issues: the normalisation of alcohol as an everyday product and the aggressive marketing of alcohol for New Zealanders; and the need for culturally appropriate alcohol treatment programmes.
9 Te Aiorangi are strongly against the Tobacco Industry in Aotearoa and the Consequences of Tobacco use for Maori. We acknowledge that Maori experience the greater health burden of these two drugs since their introduction in the early 1800s and we have never recovered health wise. As a family whose mother smoked and could not find a way to quit, died at the age of 51. My whanau have paid the price of smoking. My daughter Angela features on the Quit Ads on television. In supporting a greater understanding of the effects of tobacco, we believe that if we are able to go 2 generations within our whanau without smoking we can grow a whanau who do not smoke. 10. Alcohol causes an even greater amount of collateral damage to whanau and the social fabric of New Zealand than tobacco. It is highly unacceptable in our society that there are more than 70,000 alcohol-related physical and sexual assaults each year and a third of all police apprehensions. alcohol, like tobacco, is a killer, chronic diseases including our three most common cancers breast, prostate and bowel cancer. 11 Our Branch members in their many walks of life deal directly with the effects of alcohol abuse on a day to day basis across a wide range of workplaces, They see health issues of children suffering from the effects of foetal alcohol syndrome. We have been pushing for the past 3 years to have labels on alcohol warning pregnant mothers about the effects alcohol has on the unborn child. 12 We have members who work directly with those whanau where alcohol continues to rob them of decent food and their ability to have money for day to day emergencies. 13. The increase in alcohol consumption by our rangatahi provides a greater challenge for Maori engaged in the work area of trying to reduce the impact of alcohol on whanau families, hapū and iwi. Young people on the West Coast say they are able to access alcohol easily, they ask adults to buy it. 14. This alarming issue fits with the disproportionate representation of Māori under 24 years having a much higher level of alcohol related harm. The tern of binge drinking and the increased availability of alcohol within our communities and the age of our first exposure to trying alcohol is significantly younger than non Maori. 15 We therefore strongly support the recommendation of the Alcohol Action campaign to reduce the hours of purchase for off-license to 10am -10pm, and on-license 10am 1pm, and to signal the end to normal supermarket sales of alcohol. (NZNO)
16. We strongly advocate for pregnant women, that they have the necessary information to make informed choices about any product they might consume during pregnancy that could harm the baby. We know that the outcomes of alcohol consumption in pregnancy are not good, and that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is affecting more of our mokopuna. We support health warning labels, particularly for pregnant women, on bottles of alcohol as foreshadowed by the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand Safety (FSANZ) last month. We draw your attention to NZNO submission to FSANZ on Application A576 - Labelling of
Alcoholic Beverages with a Pregnancy Health Advisory Label in February, 2008. Our members wish to advocate that bold labels are a cost effective way of raising awareness and reminding the public of the risks associated with drinking. One member recalls the issue around putting labels on alcohol to warn pregnant women about the dangers of drinking. I believe that this is similar where there is a warning about the harmful effects of alcohol on our society and the serious nature of offences being committed while under the influence. Te Aiorangi totally supports this and strongly asks the government o put action to this this paragraph)(nzno) 17. We are aware that the harmful effects of alcohol can impact further than the individual, to the wider community, the Whanau, hapū and iwi; Alcohol doesn t just affect one aspect of a person's life, it affects all. 18. We strongly object to the normalisation of alcohol as an everyday product in our society. The need for more culturally appropriate alcohol treatment facilities 19. As research indicates that Maori across all ages experience disproportionate harm from alcohol, strongly advocate for more culturally appropriate alcohol treatment facilities across the country..20 We agree it is important that any solutions designed to address alcohol issues and its impact on whanau, hapū and iwi must also include representation and involvement from Maori communities to improve and reduce alcohol related harm. CONCLUSION Te Aiorangi Branch strongly recommends that you: raising the price of alcohol; significantly reducing the ever-present accessibility and advertising of alcohol; or putting an end to legal drunk driving. Note we strongly recommend that you provide access to and culturally appropriately resourced treatment programmes for Māori youth; Note we strongly support the recommendation of the Alcohol Action campaign to reduce the hours of purchase for off-license to 10am -10pm,
i New Zealand Nurses Organisation. 2011. New Zealand Nurses Organisation Strategic Plan 2011-2015. ii New Zealand Nurses Organisation. 2011. Te Runanga o Aotearoa, NZNO Membership data, February 2011. Wellington: New Zealand Nurses Organisation. iii Stewart, L. 1997. Approaches to preventing Alcohol related problems: The experience of New Zealand and Australia. Drug and Alcohol Review. 16. 391-399. iv Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand. 2009. Māori Action Plan 2009-2012. Wellington: Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand. v Hughes, H. 2007. Whakaohonga Nā Kahungatanga Awakening from Addiction Masters thesis. Wellington: Victoria University. vi Connor, J. You, R. Casswell, S. 2009. Alcohol related harm to others: a Survey of physical and sexual assault in New Zealand. New Zealand Medical Journal. Vol: 122:1303. vii Stevenson, R. 2009. National Alcohol Assessment. Wellington: New Zealand Police. viii Conner, J. Broad, J. Rhem, J, et al. 2005. The Burden of death, disease and disability due to alcohol in New Zealand. New Zealand Medical Journal. Vol: 118:1213. ix Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand. 2009. Māori Action Plan 2009-2012. Wellington: Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand. x Ministry of Health. 2009. Alcohol use in New Zealand: key results of the 2007/08 New Zelaand Alcohol and Drug use Survey. Ministry of health: Wellington. xi New Zealand Law Commission (NZLC). 2010. Alcohol in our Lives: Curbing the Harm (Law Commission report; no 114). Wellington: NZLC. xii Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand. 2009. Māori Action Plan 2009-2012. Wellington: Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand. References Rev Canon Mere Wallace President Te Aiorangi Branch Note This submission has been put in to support Te Runanga o Aotearoa(NZNO). A lot of this work has been completed by Leanne Mason Policy Analyst(NZNO)