Goff Phil: Sale of Liquor (Youth Alcohol Harm Reduction)  Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Goff Phil: Sale of Liquor (Youth Alcohol Harm Reduction)  Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:625;Page:20514] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I first want to correct two things that were said by my friend Matt Robson in his introductory comments. The conclusion of the Ministry of Justice is not as he suggested that lowering the drinking age has been damaging and should be reversed. The Ministry of Justice does not take a position on this bill. That would be inappropriate. I have circulated to all members of the House in a bipartisan way for their information the comments I have from the Ministry of Justice. 
In fact the principal findings of four reviews by the Ministry of Justice to try to work out what the impact of lowering the drinking age has been have all been similar. The ministry states: “As in earlier reports the statistics show a mixed and partial picture of the possible impact with no clear picture of whether lowering the minimum purchase age has had a detrimental effect on young people’s drinking behaviour.” That is the conclusion of the Ministry of Justice. 
The second thing I wish to comment on by way of correction is that I most certainly have not given any advice to my caucus not to vote for the bill. This is a conscience vote. Every individual will make his or her own decision on how to vote so I am not sure where that mistaken assumption came from. 
I intend to vote for the bill to proceed to the select committee. I do so because I believe that there is a public interest in that happening and I also believe that there is real benefit from a close analysis by a select committee of the problem of alcohol abuse in this country—not only by young people but overall—and of the efficacy of the proposed solution. 
I voted in 1999 against the lowering of the drinking age to 18 but I have real reservations about what will be achieved at this point by raising the age back to 20. I am also concerned that the implication of this bill is that the serious problems of alcohol abuse in this country will be solved by making it illegal for one small group—18 and 19-year-olds—to purchase or even to be supplied with alcohol when we all know there is a critical problem with 12 to 17-year-olds in binge drinking. It is illegal for them to drink but that is the age group in which serious binge drinking is happening. Nothing in this bill will solve that problem and it is a helluva jump of the imagination to believe that drinking problems stop at 20. Some people’s drinking problems never stop throughout their lives. 
Let me say as well that I believe that people aged 18 and 19 because of their lack of experience and maturity probably abuse alcohol in a higher proportion to other groups. But having said that I believe that the vast majority of 18 and 19-year-olds do drink responsibly. Why would we punish the majority to get at the minority who abuse alcohol? 
How do we justify a society in which young persons can drive at 15 legally have sex at 16 vote at 18 go overseas and fight in a war for their country in the defence forces at 18 but in which somehow it is illegal for them to have a beer or a glass of wine until they are 20? I cannot understand the logic of that. 
We should make no mistake about it: alcohol and abuse of alcohol is a serious problem in our society. That is why I voted against the lowering of the drinking age in 1999. There are clear associations of alcohol abuse with road safety with violence with unprotected sex and with health problems. But let us look at where the basic problem comes from. I believe that the problem in this country is that we have a culture in which most of the population see getting drunk as unexceptionable and in fact a bit of a laugh. If young people act similarly with additional propensity for risk-taking and exuberant behaviour they have learnt that culture from their elders. 
We will not solve the problem of alcohol abuse in this country until we change the culture. Why is it that in countries like France and Italy there is no drinking age yet there is much less of a problem with alcohol abuse than there is in northern European countries from where we take our culture and where the problems of alcohol abuse are very apparent? 
Teenage binge drinking is a serious problem but as I said before the greater problem is with the 12-17 year age group and raising the drinking age to 20 does not solve that particular problem. We have a responsibility to address the problem. I support the bill going to the select committee but I hope the approach of the select committee is evidence-based and not emotion-based.