The impacts of liquor outlets in Manukau City. Report no. 1: A review of the international academic literature and New Zealand media reports

This report was published by the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC). ALAC merged with the Health Sponsorship Council to become the Health Promotion Agency in 2012. HPA became part of Health New Zealand in 2022.
There has been significant recent debate over the impacts of liquor outlets on communities in New Zealand. This report reviews two sides to the published debate on the impacts of liquor outlets: the international academic literature and New Zealand media reports. The level of concern about the issue of liquor outlet density is clear from the media review as well as discussions with stakeholders in the community. However, there is a lack of consensus in the academic literature about the nature and extent of any relationship between liquor outlets and outcome variables such as crime statistics - these relationships are like to be highly context specific. This suggests that further research is needed at a local level in order to investigate whether a relationship exists between liquor outlet density and alcohol-related harms in each location.