By Brook Sabin
Dairy owners say it's grossly unfair that they will be forced to stop selling alcohol under proposed liquor law changes.
Justice Minister Simon Power announced a raft of possible changes yesterday including tightening up rules for convenience stores.
Ash Darji has been selling alcohol at his Auckland dairy for 10 years but he may have to soon change the shop's name because the Government has signalled it wants the practise to stop.
“Most people that come in here just buy one bottle of alcohol; they don't really buy and bulk alcohol at all,” Mr Darji says.
While splitting the age between off and on licences has gained the most attention, there could be big changes on the way for your corner store.
“Existing laws will be strengthened to exclude dairies and convenience stores from selling alcohol,” Mr Power said.
But Mr Darji says the measures won't be effective because if people want a lot of cheap alcohol they just head to the supermarket, and he says the move could financially cripple some dairies.
“They are thinking of banning the cigarette; if they ban the cigarette and the liquor there will be hardly any of the small businesses left,” he says.
The Retailers' Association predicts there could be problems in defining exactly what constitutes a dairy, when many are virtually small supermarkets.
“I think as long as there are grey areas around the definition you're going to get people trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the district licensing authority,” says Bruce Robertson.
He says the Association will consult the Government over the definition when the liquor proposals reach select committee stage later in the year.
3 News