Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC (Victoria University of Wellington), Alcohol in Our Lives: Curbing the Harm – An Address to the 2010 ALAC Conference, Victoria U. of Wellington L. Research Paper No. 20 (2022):
An address to the 2010 ALAC Conference, delivered on 6 May 2010. The address introduces the Law Commission’s report, Alcohol in Our Lives: Curbing the Harm, and provides an overview of the reform process. It tackles criticisms that the Commission’s recommendations represent a “nanny-state approach”, arguing that the overall thrust of the report is to return much of the decision-making power to local communities. It also refutes the claim that the report punishes the “responsible majority” for the sins of a small minority, characterising hazardous alcohol consumption as a common phenomenon that is not confined to an aberrant minority.