By Brook Sabin
The Government is tonight being accused of a cover-up - burying major research that shows overwhelming public support for alcohol reform.
The research, which was most comprehensive ever conducted of New Zealanders' attitudes towards alcohol, was undertaken to inform the review of liquor laws but it was never made available to the politicians involved in that process because Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne put a stop to it.
After a request was made under the Official Information Act, the report has been made official.
The results of the survey showed:
82 percent support or strongly support increased restrictions on alcohol advertising.
56 percent felt the same about raising the price of cheap alcohol.
78 percent wanted the purchase age raised to 20.
The survey began last year when the Ministry of Health asked the government-owned Health Sponsorship Council to include - as part of a major study surveying 1700 New Zealanders - a range of questions about alcohol.
The Ministry of Health sent the draft results to Peter Dunne saying it would cost $10,000 for the report to be finalised and peer reviewed.
But the associate minister's office put a stop to it -- saying the $10,000 could be better spent elsewhere - and so the report was never published.
“Very serious questions need to be asked about why this information wan’t put forward,” says Rebecca Willliams of Alcohol Healthwatch.
$10,000 is absolutely trivial, particularly on a critical report like this, which would inform a once in a generation alcohol reform process,” says Professor Doug Sellman, Director of the National Addiction Centre of Otago University.
Labour and the Greens are furious the 45 page research was not available to the select committee reviewing the alcohol reforms, and claim it's a cover-up.
“The law commission certainly from its findings believe that the public were ready for significant change – and this report confirms it. This should have been presented to the select committee,” says Lianne Dalziel, Associate Spokesperson for Justice.
“I think the public are going to be astonished, and extremely angry about the fact that the government has chosen to suppress this really important evidence,” says Green MP Kevin Hagu.
Peter Dunne would not front for an interview but a spokesperson released a statement saying:
“…given that the preliminary survey data was essentially consistent with the range of public views readily available from other sources it was decided that the public money being sought for further analysis could be better spent elsewhere in the health sector.”
But Professor Sellman dismisses that, saying it is the most comprehensive survey on alcohol attitudes in New Zealand he has ever seen.
3 News