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The police say lowering the blood alcohol limit would save lives, but is just one of a number of answers to reducing the road toll.
Transport Minister, Paul Swain plans to lower the blood alcohol limit from 80 milligrams of alcohol per one hundred millilitres of blood, to 50 milligrams.
Police national road safety manager, Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, says it is good to see the issue being debated publicly and says a similar situation has operated successfully in Australia for many years.
But the move to decrease the limit has come in for some criticism.
National leader Bill English says the government should focus on enforcing the current allowable blood alcohol limit for drivers, rather than pushing the limit down.
Swain says reducing the blood alcohol limit to 50 milligrams could save up to 14 lives each year.
The combination of alcohol and speed contributes to 11% of fatal crashes, while alcohol alone contributes to 14%.
English, says lowering the limit is not the priority - catching drivers who are way over the limit is.
The Alcohol Advisory Council has welcomed the plan, but its chairman, professor Andrew Hornblow, warns it will not work magic on the road toll, because it does not target the worst offenders.
And Automobile Association spokesman George Fairbairn says the best way to cut the road toll is for police resources to target serious repeat drink-drive offenders who continue to disregard the law because they know it is unlikely they will be caught.
Fairbairn says police enforcement needs to go so far as stationing officers outside hotels, or the homes of known offenders.
He says law-makers in England considered raising the blood-alcohol limit but decided instead to put their effort into catching drivers at the upper level of offending.
The national co-ordinator for Students Against Driving Drunk, Chloe Johnston says the government's plan is good, and it will save lives, but says it is not necessary to reduce the level for under-20s.
Drivers under 20 are restricted to a blood alcohol limit of 30 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
Swain says he will take the proposal to lower the blood alcohol limit to Cabinet by July, and if it is accepted, he says we can also expect more stringent policing of the drink drive rules.
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