Alcohol licensing bill, the Mike King saga and Police removal from mental health call outs w/ The ACT Party’s Simon Court: 4 November, 2024

ACT MP Simon Court has recently introduced a members bill looking to scrap ‘alcohol licensing trust monopolies’ which remain in Gore, Invercargill and West Auckland. 

This would change the system in these areas in which the licensing trusts decide where alcohol can be sold, resulting in no alcohol at supermarkets and very few bars. The bill has received a lot of response, with trusts in the South calling it an ‘Auckland-centric’ view and undemocratic. 

For their weekly catch-up Producer Evie spoke to Court about the bill and the responses to it. 

They also talk about Mike King and the government funding for his mental health initiative ‘Gumboot friday’, following controversial comments made by King. 

In a Newstalk ZB interview last week King claimed that ‘alcohol wasn’t a problem for people with mental health issues’ instead that it was a ‘solution to these issues.’ 

Now the Labour party is calling for the government to suspend funding for the $24 million gumboot friday initiative. 

And finally they talk about Police being pulled back from mental health callouts, which began at the start of this month. The move has left health workers worried about their safety and how to deal with violence in the workplace.