Transcript
LEMALU HERMAN RETZLAFF - What this report does, is it comes in from, if you like, on the other side because we have the laws in our crimes' act, which is relatively recently reformed from 2013, so there's laws there that allow us to prosecute crime, but the report helps us with the prevention before it gets to the point where we need to prosecute crime. Obviously, I've seen what I would say is an increase in some sentences across the board. The reason why this is an important report is because it's saying that we need to deal with it before our youth start drinking alcohol. We're dealing with cheap alcohol. We're dealing with cheap vodka that you purchase at something like under 15 tala Samoan and you're dealing with the accessibility of this alcohol by goodness knows how young the purchaser are. We want an increase level of accountability where policemen can, for example, issue immediate fines, if you like strict liability fines as soon as they have the evidence of breaches of laws against age groups and people that might offering alcohol to minors and also for allowing them on the premises and even so much as going past the appropriate hours and we want an increase in the deterrence of those who are repeat offenders and even I agree with the recommendation also of the report that police should be able to close down an organisation or an institution or a bar where they see public disorder or where there's been loitering. Where there's been public fighting, particularly if there's a history of it, so that kind of, if you like, hard knocks approach is required I believe. We also try and encourage with what the report says, which is for the community of organisations, NGOs that are appropriate and church groups to start the talk about the dangers of alcohol and all of these efforts together as a community will help I think. That'll be the goal anyway.
SELA JANE HOPGOOD - Should businesses selling alcohol be concerned with the recommendation?
LHR - I'm sure that there will be concern about the effects of any laws have on how they operate as a business, but the main key for me is to deter. If you are selling alcohol to someone who is not of the right age then you need to be held accountable. At this point, if you have 80 per cent of violent offences like murder being directly related to alcohol consumption, I think the main priority is to give strict laws of deterrence rather than be too overly concerned about the manner in which a business is conducted. I don't think these laws are designed to stop a business from allowing a family to have a nice dinner with a few bottles of red wine, that's not what we are dealing with. The laws we're trying to bring will be specifically aimed at serving minors and serving those who are underage. Some of the statistics are telling. Not only do we have the 70 to 80 percent, which is actually equal to the New Zealand district court report, which is 80 percent of district court offending, but you see when you compare the minor offences of a district court to what Samoa has, we have our most serious crimes, where lives are affected to the point of death related to alcohol consumption and I've had the judiciary expressing not only what we've had at community judiciaries expressing concern in their decisions when they outline it, but also direct contact with our office and to myself saying, "You gotta get stricter on the alcohol", and I'm all for it. What I'm also wanting to stand is for a communal approach because I actually don't think that a penalty in themselves are an answer to anything. Has to be a community effort all around to realise the effect of this is having on our country.