New Zealand to up drinking age - to 20
now the kiwis are at it:
New Zealand to up drinking age - to 20
Wellington (dpa) - A committee of the New Zealand parliament recommended on Friday that the legal minimum age to drink alcohol should be raised from 18 to 20.
This would revert to the situation prevailing before 1999 when parliament allowed young people to buy liquor legally at the same age they can vote and join the armed forces.
All 121 members of parliament will now have another conscience vote, free of direction by their political parties, later this year before the change becomes law.
The committee's decision was hailed by the Alcohol Healthwatch organisation which said that society had been paying for the failed experiment since 1999 and 18- to 19-year-olds were now the country's heaviest drinkers.
The national Drug Foundation also welcomed it, saying that raising the age to 20 was important to change the country's binge-drinking culture.
But Bruce Robertson, chief executive of the Hospitality Association, attacked it as an "archaic and draconian measure which will further alienate a generation with different values and attitudes to those of our members of parliament."
He said, "We expect them to be responsible enough to vote, become a member of parliament, join the police force, have same sex marriages, have children or be a prostitute but the committee is saying we cannot trust them to buy alcohol."
