Tales from the Past - a look at the history of HANZ Chapter 14

By 1995 the original regional managers were in place as programmed and the scheme proved a great success. One of the first regional managers was Susan Biss who covered most of the South Island. Susan had some favourable industry background, as an ancestor by the same name had figured in the association's early history in 1906 when he was one of the hoteliers' preferred nominations for the Licensing Committee. In fact he topped the poll. He was a prominent Capital citizen and belonged to a small group of civic leaders known to hoteliers to support "justice to the trade" and 11 o'clock closing, as outlined earlier in this history.

Former manager of Wellington's St George Hotel and long serving HANZ employee and prominent rugby referee, Graeme McKay took over the northern part of the country. Graeme and his wife Rochelle had returned to their native Auckland prior to the new set-up, after a long stint in the Capital. Susan and Graeme are the only two original regional managers still with HANZ

Wellington branch secretary and a member of the HANZ administration team Ian Bray was assigned the bottom part of the North Island and a portion of the top of the mainland. A Justice of the Peace and a former stalwart of the Tourist Hotel Corporation chain, Ian resigned late in 1996 to take over Pub Charity when Tom Sheehy finally stood down. Ian still holds the position of Chief Executive at Pub Charity.

The other original HANZ regional managers were Sandy Abbott who worked the Hawkes Bay area, Andrew Shepherd covering the southern part of the South Island and Alan Fursdon, a leading chef, who operated out of Hamilton. All three have since left HANZ. Newcomers since the inception and still employed by HANZ are Karen Flookes (Wellington and Auckland), Raewyn Bleakley (the deep south and now the Capital), Sara Tucker (Northern region), Bruce Lochore (Palmerston North), and Darryl Jellyman (Southern region).. It is a credit to HANZ and especially to Bruce Robertson, to have obtained the services of such capable and outstanding regional managers, past and present.

1996 saw the Government announce yet another review of the Sale of Liquor Act and the board worked their way through the issues confirming the HANZ position on each. These included.

· Minimum drinking age - 18 years and no exceptions

· Supermarket and off-licence sales on Sunday - selling beer and spirits inappropriate, Sunday to be treated the same as any other day,

· Drinking Hours - Preservation of the opportunity for a 24 hour license

· Definition of Intoxication - not to be included or defined

· Host responsibility - legislation be opposed - much achieved already

· Managers Certificate and Training - rigid training, one category and three yearly renewal

· Roles of LLA and District Licensing Agencies - status quo

There were other issues of lesser importance but the preparation was well worthwhile when the Review Committee agreed with 21 areas of the HANZ submissions and recommended against only four. Key recommendations from the Review Committee's report were lowering of the drinking age to 18, normalising Sunday trading, retaining the 24 hour trading opportunity, open slather for supermarkets with beer wines and spirits seven days a week, and the provision for licence dispensation.

No legislation had been drafted or introduced and Bruce Robertson relying on his valuable liaison with Members of Parliament surmised that it would be at least two years before the recommendations became law. This offered an opportunity for all HANZ members to lobby local MP's and others with particular emphasis on the recommended relaxation of the rules relating to supermarkets,

The Review Committee was impressed with the extensive MRL survey undertaken of HANZ members and the 66% response was the largest response ever received for such an exercise.

The associations 94^th annual general meeting was held in beautiful Queenstown in 1996 and an indication that branches and delegates were happy with the new format was indicated by the status quo result in the election of officers and board members. Members were delighted too with the steady increase in membership and the growing list of reputable sponsors who were aligning themselves with HANZ for discounted prices and terms for goods and services. The introduction of trade fairs in conjunction with conference while proving to be of great benefit to members also produced valuable financial support to organise and run the annual event.

There was a new attitude from branches as well. Although branch funding was still available based on a grant of $50 per establishment with a submitted budget, three large branches Auckland Wellington and Southland, had decided to forgo their entitlement with other branches opting for a reduced grant.

Members also received help and guidance from Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) manuals and Building Act guides distributed by HANZ with assistance from Pub Charity. A book entitled "Managers Inn" specifically aimed at new members was well received but the publication of a purchasing guide "HANZ on NZ" did not have the same luck when the publishing firm went into receivership.

In late 1996 HANZ re-joined the local chapter of the Pacific Area Travel Association (PATA), but despite the improved financial situation the board decided that the subscription for the international body was not warranted. President Gerry Power and his lovely wife Mavis had attended the Hong Kong conference some four years earlier and had made a favourable impression on New Zealand's behalf.

The Pub Charity administration had a minor restructure in late 1996 with resignations from Alistair Sherriff, Tom Sheehy and Kevin Fowke. All three had been original trustees and all were extremely conversant in all aspects of licensing and gaming matters. Tom in particular had been a driving force on behalf of all operators and HANZ's legal advocate Alistair Sherriff and retired Christchurch hotelier Kevin Fowke had also made excellent contributions.

HANZ board member Barry Rozynski was appointed as a replacement trustee and at the same time Bruce Robertson was appointed chair of the Hospitality Training Institute.

The 1997 annual general meeting was held at the Great Lake Convention Centre in Taupo, the first time in almost a century that the tourist town had hosted a HANZ conference. Respects were paid to two trade personalities who had died during the year. Maurice Sexton of Palmerston North had been the local branch secretary for 44 years and Jack Hinton who won the Victoria Cross in Greece in 1941, had managed hotels in the South Island and Auckland after he returned from the war.

In a rather eventful year HANZ had been part of an excellent Ombudsman decision, which ruled in favour of HANZ member's Northland hotels, when the Whangarei District Council arbitrarily imposed an unlawful annual inspection fee. In addition there was a 30% increase in membership, up to over 1200, and comforting indications that the association was going from strength to strength.

Gerry Power, the association's longest serving president had indicated that it would be his last year, and he was honoured with life membership. Early in 1997 the Rt Hon Sir Douglas Graham officially opened the Power Suite at HANZ Head Office acknowledging Gerry's magnificent contribution to HANZ and the industry over almost four decades. Sadly, Gerrard Francis Power's well-deserved life membership was cut short with his sudden death at Lake Rotiti the following year.

Incidentally the Y2K Millennium Trust turned down an application for furnishings and memorabilia for the Power Suite recognising HANZ's contribution over the century. Meanwhile all manner of groups and organizations apparently had achieved enough to warrant sizeable grants for all sorts of projects with no corroboration or subsequent audit.

Not so pleasant as well, was the news of the highest price increase in draught beer for some years - away over the amount of the excise cost rise it was supposed to represent. A sub committee was formed to approach both main breweries to discuss the issue and there was even an enquiry to Australia ascertaining the position of introducing Victoria Bitter on tap. However, Carlton United Breweries declined to co-operate, as did their New Zealand counterparts in relation to the price hike.

In 1998 the annual conference was held in the Dunedin Town Hall and Frank Murphy moved a hearty note of thanks when treasurer Maurice Hayes reported the first profit under the new regime. There was another important first as well. An Award for Excellence programme had been instituted and has since manifested into a very popular feature at every conference. There were five categories for the inaugural awards in Dunedin, and for the record the first winners were

• Best Re-developed Hotel/Bar/Restaurant Tuscany's, Blenheim
• Best Marketed Hotel/Bar/Restaurant R'toto Pub/ Caf￩ Takapuna
• Excellence in Gaming Richard Pearse Timaru
• Outstanding Customer Service Honest Lawyer Nelson
• Outstanding Host Responsibility Rose & Crown Wellington

The judges were Gerry Power's widow Mavis, Bryan Walshe, the association's auditor and Garry Ward a former licencee, brewery administrator and well-known Capital radio personality.

Back to business following the conference and the once again unchanged board had plenty of issues to contend with. There was an approach from the Returned Services Association clubs wanting to move closer to HANZ but it was felt that the time was inappropriate given the anticipated differences that were obviously going to ensue between the clubs and the industry regarding gaming issues.

The popular and very experienced Nicki Stewart, CEO of the HSI and later to control the Beer Wine and Spirits Council, briefed the board early in 1999 explaining the progress with the planned Service Controllers Certificate and the new HSI qualifications and training programme. Whilst board members supported the concept of an experience competency component for the planned Controllers Certificate, there were reservations about the need for two levels of certification for on and off licence. Bruce Robertson was re-appointed to the HSI board.

Gaming issues were taking up a lot of time for the board and Pub Charity trustees. HANZ took a 45% shareholding in Independent Gaming Monitoring but held an interest in the other organizations on a pro rata machine basis. Complications were to develop with other organizations over the next few years but HANZ decided to align with GMANZ (Gaming Machine Association of NZ) under the independent chairmanship of Garry Ward.

HANZ through treasurer and tax specialist Maurice Hayes also had a victory in connection with the small Waipapakauri hotel run by loyal HANZ member and former All Black Adrian Clarke in the far North. The bureaucrats were unhappy about the amount the small hotel based trust was putting back into the community whereas the closing down of the machines would result in no community grant at all. A revised budget resulted in a 33% community return.

HANZ also entered into a partnership with Fountain Drinks investing $100,000 in an endeavour to acquire a cheaper product for members, which had a comparable quality to Coca Cola and other suppliers. Coca Cola in particular had treated the hotel trade, particularly the smaller operators, with complete disdain for many years and increased prices on a regular basis with no regard to what the market could stand. Not surprisingly when many hoteliers changed to the new Fountain product other suppliers made approaches to adjust prices and deals but with little success. As HANZ moved towards its century, treasurer Maurice Hayes who had played a prominent part in initiating the Fountain deal, was pleased to report to the board that Fountain was on the way to profitable future.

HANZ had also courted relationships with MANZ (Motel Association of NZ) and RANZ (Restaurant Association of NZ) over a period of years but as the century started to fade away so do did both organizations. The restaurateurs indicated that they wanted to do their own thing and were not interested in a liaison, while the motelier contacts faded away with the century.

Although Wellington had been the venue of the first 27 annual general meetings and had hosted a further 12 in the intervening years there had been no conference in the capital for 35 years. The last conference in the Capital had been in the Palm Lounge of the St George Hotel in 1964.

The 1999 conference was held at the Plaza Hotel Ball Room in the Capital and attracted a record number of delegates and observers. For the first time membership exceed 1400, a far cry from the 738 financial members at the meeting four years earlier, when it was decided to go with a membership drive with subscriptions rather than the levy system.

Wellington's Deputy Mayor Kerry Prendergrast opened the conference in the absence of Mayor Mark Blumsky who was overseas and a rather lean agenda, and good weather, gave visitors a chance to have a look around an entirely different Wellington to the scene in 1964.

There was discussion though on the Sale of Liquor Act 1999 which, as predicted by Bruce Robertson, became law on 1 October 1999. Over 3000 industry personnel had attended HANZ seminars on the changes. The new drinking age and Sunday trading and the HANZ 18 plus card proved very popular with the card in particular being very effective in controlling under age drinking. Off premises suffered with beer sales moving to supermarkets and issues still remained around the consistency and application of the law as it related to Easter, Anzac morning and Christmas.

Maurice Hayes and Bill Brien were elected life members of the national association and those two, along with the late Gerry Power were the only life members elected since 1979.

Into the new century and the board were delighted to hear at the first meeting that subscriptions, membership and forecasts were all above budget. Progress was being made on the association's web-site and 18 Plus cards issued had already exceeded 12,000. A deal had been struck with the NZ Licensed Trusts Association to service 20 Trust outlets with "Service Line" and "Fortnightly Forum" at an agreed rate. Pub Charity and HANZ board meetings were scheduled for the same day with one only over night stopover per year. These changes were indicative of the smooth running operation that HANZ had become and also of course saved money.

Not so pleasant were negotiations with the TAB over the $10,000 bond payable up front for TAB facilities. The TAB were capitalising on the good deal that the new Government had dealt to the racing industry and were aware of the access they were going to have to gaming machine monies. The TAB adopted an arrogant attitude and paid scant regard to under ages betting and playing machines on TAB premises and licencees having to put up the exorbitant bond.

The smoke free legislation also reached hysterical proportions. Hoteliers were receiving deputations from the smoke free brigade asking for support on non smoking bars only to be confronted on another day by the Legalise Cannabis Aotearoa group requesting money from gaming machine proceeds to help their cause !! When HANZ raised the issue of who was going to police the heinous villains who dared light up in a bar under the new legislation, no one had an answer.

In 2000 the New Zealand Wine and Spirit Merchants made an approach to merge with HANZ and asked for an off licence presence on the HANZ board. This would have proved very difficult to accommodate and would have raised issues with other sectors, HANZ declined. The merchants and the association had had a wonderful rapport for most of the century but the access to liquor, extended hours and general de-regulation of the industry had reduced their ability to operate as they had in the past. Many industry leaders in the Merchants sector were pillars of society, highly respected, and there would have been a lot of HANZ members who were sympathetic, but like so many other things, times had changed. In 2001 they wound up the association and ceased to operate.

In considering the merchant's dilemma though it is appropriate to consider the HANZ profile as it entered the new millennium. By the middle of 2000 HANZ was recognised as the genuine voice of the hospitality sector. It had a good media profile, growing membership, good finances, and new agendas covering smoking in bars, gambling, employment law and an excellent working network. There were 1568 members and more significantly HANZ represented 13000 rooms in the accommodation sector. Members valued a 24-hour 7-day employment advisory service and many member benefits. In the same context many hotel and tavern staff had adapted to the new culture of working in a 24 hour, 7 day a week environment and in many tourist and ski resort areas Saturday and Sunday work at nominal rates was in high demand and individual pursuits could be pursued through the week when the ski-fields and tourists attractions were empty..

The 98^th annual general meeting was held again in Christchurch in October 2000 and as usual in Christchurch in the spring the setting was perfect with another large attendance. The feature would have to be the magnificent awards dinner in the RNZAF Museum at Wigram air base. Because of the board structure and the contribution of the HANZ key staff, there were not a lot of issues to dwell on, mainly because delegates were kept up to speed through the year with "Service Line" and other communications. The rapid updating of technology in the last decade of last century had turned complicated transactions and communications into relatively simple tasks.

A remit from the small Thames Valley branch received deserved sympathy when the delegates contended that all Returned Services Association clubs should be denied HANZ membership. The board had previously discussed the issue following an approach from the RSA but had decided that the time was not appropriate. The motion was narrowly defeated but referred back to branches and although the issue was subsequently left in abeyance it appeared that the choice would eventually become a decision for the individual branches.

A presentation from a representative of the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) gave an enthusiastic insight into the delights of touring the country trying to find good honest hard working hoteliers who had not paid the fee for playing music in their hotels. His enthusiasm exceeded that of a young policeman who had just caught Ron Jorgensen walking around Cathedral Square.

In 2001 the Liquor Licensing Authority saw some overdue changes. Chairman John Gatley who had sat for many years with Jim Thompson, had retired to Taupo and the Authority operated on limited personnel for some time. Former MP Rob Munro who had also sat with Messrs Gatley and Thompson stood down and recommenced as a barrister.

Change of government and the introduction of MMP saw long delays in making appointments but eventually Judge Bill Unwin was appointed chairman and John Crookston a former Police Superintendent, lawyer and the co-author of the Sale of Liquor Manual, was appointed and between them they now administer the onerous tasks the Tribunal face.

Wellington branch president and national board member Peter Norrie together with Adam Cunningham vice president of the branch, in association with Work and Income NZ set up a trial scheme to endeavour to get long term unemployed back into the work force. Adam has a hospitality training business associated with his hotels and the candidates are placed on a training course followed by a six-month course in employment subsidised by WINZ and the employer. It is hoped that the venture will meet with success and perhaps be tried in other centres.