Parliament to consider drinking age 

Parliament will soon consider whether to return the legal drinking age to 20 as submissions to the proposed bill closed on Wednesday.
 
Since the drinking age changed in 1999, the issue has never been far from the headlines.  Drunk driving and street riots are just some of the problems attributed by many to lowering the age.

The proposed changes to the bill include raising the purchase age back to 20, and banning alcohol advertisements before 10pm with a $100,000 fine for breaching the law.

But even those for raising the age say it is certainly not a solution to the teen drinking problem.

"I don't think raising the age is necessarily going to stop that, this is a society wide issue, not just a young persons issue and I think that is the problem," says Mike Mcavoy from the Alcohol Liquor Advisory Committee.

This issue was hotly debated six years ago before the age was lowered and narrowly passed 59 votes to 54.

With a whole new raft of politicians in the house and with this being a conscience not a party vote it is anyone's guess which way it could go when it is voted on some time next year. 

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