Her member's Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Harm Minimisation) Amendment Bill does not address all the issues which those advocating comprehensive law reform are seeking, but it is better than Labour's so far unproductive promises to undertake a review of our alcohol laws.
Although Labour did not include alcohol law reform in its manifesto for the last election, in 2019 the then Justice Minister Andrew Little made noises about a review, followed by his successor the now-departed Kris Faafoi, last year and this year, but if progress has been made on this, it is hard to tell.
Ms Swarbrick's Bill addresses the issue that has been bugging those trying to wrest some control over what is happening with alcohol supply in their communities.
It would abolish appeals on local alcohol policies (Lap) which have held up local alcohol licensing for years in some areas.
Alcohol Healthwatch reports that by May this year, 41 of 67 councils have an adopted Lap.
The two supermarket chains have appealed 86% of them and bottle stores' 72%.
Such proceedings mean there is no Lap in some of our largest cities including Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, and Christchurch.
The appeals process for Auckland's has dragged on for seven years with no end in sight.
The Bill policy statement says the existing process has meant communities have not been able to develop public health approaches to the provision of alcohol in their areas.
For those who might feel abolishing the appeal process is unfair, local authorities must go through a consultative process before adopting a Lap, and the option of judicial review would still be available.
It should also be remembered that last year all 20 district health boards (DHBs) took the unprecedented step of issuing a joint position statement calling for an urgent review of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 which they said had failed in its objective to minimise alcohol-related harm.
They wanted inequities in alcohol-related harm reduced, along with the visibility of alcohol advertising and sponsorship, and easy access to alcohol removed.
While there can be moral panic about any harm caused by illegal drugs, there has been blinkered thinking for decades about alcohol which is our most widely used drug and a group 1 carcinogen to boot. The DHBs' statement said every year more than 800 deaths are caused, and more than 60,000 disability adjusted life years are estimated to be lost due to alcohol consumption.
This month, to add to the grim statistics, the report of a University of Otago study of suicide deaths over more than decade showed more than a quarter of them had blood-alcohol levels above the legal driving limit.
Ms Swarbrick's Bill also proposes banning alcohol sponsorship of streamed and live sports and at all sporting venues, a move designed to break the cultural connection between sport and alcohol, particularly for the young.
We expect to hear the same sort of squealing from big booze as we did from big tobacco over the banning of tobacco sponsorship in the 1990s.
Indeed, we have already had the New Zealand Alcohol Beverages Council "welcoming" the Bill but also making it clear it does not agree with what is proposed.
It says alcohol advertising is not about getting people to drink more, but about getting the consumer to choose one brand over another.
As a famous alcohol advertisement once said, "Yeah, right".
It would be wise for all MPs to talk to constituents about Ms Swarbrick's Bill and wider reform, ask themselves if there is a growing mood for meaningful change, and whether they are brave enough to do anything about it. Urgently.
