Lake Hāwea’s proposed Super Liquor store is facing even more scrutiny - and now a delayed alcohol licensing hearing - amid debate between public health officials, MPs, and residents.

More than 500 objections were lodged against the application, including one from Health New Zealand which warned of “very real prospective risks” of alcohol related harm if it goes ahead.

The heat intensified last week when Waitaki MP Miles Anderson and ACT list MP Todd Stephenson told the Otago Daily Times that Health New Zealand should ‘butt out’ of the process - something an alcohol harm reduction charity says is entirely inappropriate.

“The Medical Officer of Health has a statutory role to report on alcohol licensing proposals under section 103 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012”, Communities Against Alcohol Harm secretary Dr Grant Hewison said.

“The aim of the law is to minimise the harm from alcohol, which costs the country nine billion a year… That is partly why the Medical Officer of Health has a statutory role to report on applications.” 

He said exercising this role is difficult enough without MPs weighing in.

Communities Against Alcohol Harm also took aim at Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) councillor and District Licensing Committee member Lyal Cocks, who had also provided a comment in the ODT story, which Grant said gave the “appearance of bias”.

“He needs to step aside from the committee hearing this application and probably needs to consider whether he can remain a DLC member at all,” Grant said.

Lyal told the Wānaka App his comments were intended to highlight the strict criteria of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 and he had no bias about the license.

“We as commissioners are bound by the Act…we assess how applicants say they are going to comply and how the submitters argue it isn’t going to comply, with the assessment criteria in the Act and the object of the Act.”

It is “up to the licensing secretary” who is on the panel, he said.

Meanwhile, the hearing - which was set to begin in a little over a week - has been postponed. 

A QLDC representative said one commissioner was unavailable and another had a conflict of interest, meaning the committee lacked a quorum. A new date will be announced “in the near future”.

Lake Hāwea resident Lisa Riley, who has led community opposition to the application, said she was disappointed by the delay and by what she called “misinformation” about the proposal.

She questioned why the scheduling issue and conflict of interest among commissioners were not identified much earlier.

The Super Liquor store already has resource consent but it needs a liquor licence to operate.

A new date for the hearing will be announced “in the near future”, QLDC said.

IMAGE: Supplied