Liquor-price advertising ban opposed by Labour

Press, 5 March 1982, Page 23

Liquor-price advertising ban opposed by Labour

Parliamentary reporter A proposal to ban reference to price and bulk purchases in liquor advertising has not found favour with Labour’s Shadow Minister of Consumer Affairs Mrs Ann Hercus. She called on the Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council to reconsider this part of its proposed code of practice for liquor advertising when it met again yesterday. The proposed code, if confirmed would come into force at the end of this month. Mrs Hercus said that those parts of the proposed code which sought to delete all references to price and bulk purchases in liquor advertising would stifle whatever price competition remained in the liquor industry, to the detriment of all consumers. She supported “wholeheartedly” the need for a

new code of ethics in liquor advertising and the need to dissuade people from excessive consumption for health reasons but she believed equally strongly that there were other choices that would not stifle growing signs of price competition. Mrs Hercus suggested that a better approach would be to ensure that a reasonable proportion of existing Government taxes on liquor was diverted for health education to meet the council’s health objectives, an option which would not have the side effect of lining the pockets of “monopoly traders in the liquor industry.” If the offending parts of the proposed code remained unchanged, Mrs Hercus suggested that the Newspaper Publishers’ Association should refuse to accept the two offending provisions on the grounds that they were

against competition and the consumer. “New Zealand’s liquor industry had been sadly lacking in effective prices competition for many years,” said Mrs Hercus. “Decisions taken now should seek to stimulate price competition rather than hammer the consumer by stifling cut-price liquor outlets.” she said. The liquor industry she said, had acknowledged that price competition had not increased consumption but rather had shifted volume sales from brewery-owned outlets to discounts store. “Simply forcing liquor sales away from the cheaper outlets will not guarantee reduced consumption; rather it would strangle the new elements of price competition that have recently entered the market to the consumers' benefit,” said Mrs Hercus.