Wellington, April 28 NZPA - Political parties have largely shown support for a report on liquor laws which recommends tax increases and a wide-reaching tightening of rules around the sale of alcohol.

Released by the Law Commission yesterday, the 500-page report recommends returning the alcohol drinking and purchasing age to 20, clamping down on advertising and promotion of alcohol, canning 24-hour trading and increasing excise tax by 50 percent.

The report had 153 recommendations and head architect Sir Geoffrey Palmer suggested it would only serve its purpose well if adopted as a package.

He said one of the things that made alcohol legislation difficult to get through Parliament was that issues had historically been put to a conscience vote rather than party vote.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, he said conscience voting on alcohol issues needed to be stopped if progress was to be made on improving New Zealand's heavy drinking culture.

Justice Minister Simon Power, who is charged with considering the report, said it would be up to individual caucuses to decide on whether the voting method should be changed. Labour leader Phil Goff said no decisions had been made on the issue.

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei said the party voted as one on issues where it had set policy, but would have to look at all the recommendations in the report before making decisions.

She said the party was open about whether the drinking and purchasing age should be returned to 20, but supportive of tighter regulations on marketing, advertising of alcohol and sponsorship.

"We think it should be much more in line with what they do with tobacco, it's a very loose set of regulations we have around advertising for alcohol at the moment."

Maori Party alcohol spokeswoman Rahui Katene said one of the main concerns about alcohol was the level of violence it sparked.

"Our mothers, sisters, aunties and daughters are suffering and it's time the powers that be did something about it," she said.

Labour Party justice spokeswoman Lianne Dalziel said the report gave an indication of how strongly the public felt about wanting a change in the drinking culture. The report presented a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to address the harm alcohol caused.

Progressive leader Jim Anderton was strong on returning the drinking age to 20, and also on seeing a significant tightening of rules around advertising and promotion of alcohol.

"We have a problem with alcohol abuse in this country," he said. "People with responsible drinking habits are not the target, the culture of tolerating heavy drinking is. We need law changes to alter that. Anyone who thinks we can change abusive behaviour without that is dreaming."

Prime Minister John Key and Mr Power have all but ruled out excise tax increases already, and their National Party will give a general indication of where it stands on the report in the next few weeks.

Green Party health spokeswoman Sue Kedgley said it was disappointing that had happened, considering the groundswell of support for overall change, including from many in the health sector who saw first-hand the carnage caused by intoxication.

"The present tax on alcohol pays for only a tiny fraction of the social and health costs of alcohol," she said. "People who choose to drink should be helping bear the burden of the problems caused.