Drinking age tag

Yesterday afternoon, the government announced that if the drinking age bill failed, then they would review how the underage kids are being supplied with alcohol.

So the bill failed.

What amuses me is how the government is doing the review after putting in measures that had no guarantee that it’ll work. Maybe next time they’ll make informed decisions. Not to mention, boost enforcement of the current act which is what should have been done the whole time - I’ve only seen it happen twice with premises closing en masse because of being duped into serving an underage kid by the police.

So, in general, some good news all round - not that I’m 19 anymore.

The new drinking age bill is going to parliament on Wednesday, and there is some expectation that it would go through. The point of it is to reverse the bill that went through in 1999 that dropped the age to 18 - they want it back to 20. Trouble is, it has gone down now, it won’t be able to go back up again.

This is to help curb the binge drinking culture in New Zealand, but as far as I’m aware, it has been around even before the age was dropped. Better yet, many promises were made when the last drinking bill passed - such promises as the drinking age being enforced. I don’t think that has happened as well as it should have; there have only been a couple recent stings on liquor stores and bars, resulting in most of them being closed for a couple of days.

There have been some great alternatives suggested. I like the idea where once you are 18 you can go into a bar and drink. They are responsible hosts and the drinks are a lot dearer (liquor stores sell a typical RTD at $10 for four. Bars and clubs sell only one for anywhere between $6 to $9). They are also usually pretty strict on entry.

Another thing, I thought everyone already knew that younger children are getting their alcohol mostly from their parents? So why are we punishing the 18 and 19 year olds for this?

Also, I have always said that education is the best policy - and television ads shouldn’t be the only thing. Are kids taught about alcohol responsibility in school? I don’t remember being taught about anything about alcohol when I went. That seems to be a logical place to start.

Yesterday, a new campaign Keep it 18! was launched, and is run by the youth wings of Labour, National, Greens and ACT, as well as many others. They have many compelling arguments on their website. Hopefully, these guys can all nudge their respective MPs into scrapping the bill.

• Keep it 18