The current alcohol laws are not designed to substantially reduce harm from alcohol.
Read the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012.
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2012/0120/latest/DLM3339333.html
Our organisation campaigned hard prior to this legislation being passed in Parliament. The Law Commission had included all of the policies that make up the 5+ solution in its comprehensive recommendations to the government. However, the newly elected government of the time cherry-picked a few of these recommendations, leaving out vital policy on price, availability, advertising, and age of purchase. The omission of all major population-level policies meant that the legislation was at most tinkering with the problem.
The new Act provided for Local Alcohol Policies to be developed by councils in consultation with their communities, in order to find local solutions for alcohol related harm. A great deal of effort has been made to develop policies in two-thirds of council areas, involving local licensing inspectors, the NZ Police and Medical Officers of Health.
However, these draft policies have been subject to expensive and time-consuming appeals from the alcohol industry, especially supermarket companies, and this mechanism has been ineffective in reducing alcohol related harm.