Media Release

Today Parliament has passed the Sale & Supply of Alcohol Act (Community Participation) Bill, making getting and renewing a liquor licence harder than it already was and threatening the commercial future of responsible hospitality and alcohol retail operators. “Parliament has today effectively determined that owning and operating a bar, pub, restaurant, cellar door, bottle [...]

“Statements by the Heart Foundation that there is “No Safe Level” of drinking beer, wine or spirits is, at worse, untrue and at best misleading”, says NZABC Executive Director Virginia Nicholls. “The statements released by the Heart Foundation fly in the face of over 40 years of independent scientific research.” “For adults who choose to drink, [...]

The Justice Select Committee has reported back on the Sale & Supply of Alcohol Act (Community Participation) Bill.  This Bill singled out licensing as a focus to strengthen community involvement and to reduce alcohol harm. “The beer, wines and spirits industry supports local communities being able to influence alcohol regulation in their region.  This [...]

We welcome the research by Dr Jude Ball from the University of Otago which shows youth drinking has declined and her research provides more understanding as to why this is the case. Dr Ball compared research from 2001 to 2022 and found that there is a significant improvement in the way the students are [...]

The year just got more challenging for producers, hospitality businesses and consumers of beer, wines and spirits with the announcement that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is 6.7%. “The 6.7% rise in the CPI is used as a benchmark to increase the excise tax on beer, wines and spirits.  The excise tax was $1.24 [...]

Most of us agree that targeted education and support programmes will create a better understanding of responsible drinking, a recently released survey shows. The annual survey [i] by the NZ Alcohol Beverages Council aims to understand New Zealanders views on how alcohol is perceived across a number of issues. One question asked what respondents thought [...]

In the just released annual Stats NZ survey year ending December 2022 [i], the number of standard drinks (a standard drink contains 10 grams of alcohol) has fallen in the past year by 1% to 1.96 per day in 2022 which is the lowest number of standard drinks per person in the past 15 [...]

As a lot of us head back to work a just released survey has found that three-quarters of New Zealanders say they are comfortable with drinking being part of normal Kiwi social occasions. The annual survey 1 by the NZ Alcohol Beverages Council aims to understand New Zealanders’ views on how alcohol is perceived. [...]

As 2022 nears its end a just released survey shows that the trend towards lower alcohol drinks and sipping and savouring higher strength drinks appears to be bedding in. The annual survey 1 by the NZ Alcohol Beverages Council aims to understand New Zealanders views on how alcohol is perceived across a number of [...]