Woodhouse Michael: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Woodhouse Michael: Alcohol Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 30 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:5019. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National) 
: 
 I purchased my first crate of beer out the back door of Heffs Hotel in King Edward Street Dunedin— 
Grant Robertson 
: Mine was at the Bay View. 
MICHAEL WOODHOUSE 
: —Bay View was it—in September 1981. It was the day of the third test between the All Blacks and the Springboks that famous flour bomb test. Mr Hague might have been there. I was watching the game at a mate’s place and it was my turn to buy the beer. Nikki Kaye was probably toddling around Auckland in nappies. 
I expect most people born before 1975 have a similar story to tell because in my adolescence it was easier actually to get alcohol from licensed premises and it was really hard to get it from family or anyone other than close friends. I think what has changed since the purchase age went down is that it has now become harder to get alcohol from licensed premises but easier for under-18s to get it from other sources. This is really important because in order to justify raising the age again we need to be sure that lowering the age was in fact the cause of rather than simply correlated with the alcohol-related harm. The Law Commission referenced several studies on increases in things like emergency department presentations violence and motor vehicle accidents but in most of those studies the data is for youth aged 15 to 19 or 15 to 24 so the studies include harm by those aged above 20 who are not affected by this change and those below 18. 
So my question is this: what benefit if any will a change in the purchase age for 18 and 19-year-olds have on our drinking culture? The studies do show that although the harm to 18 and 19-year-olds went up after 1999 it also went up in other age groups at the same time as other changes were being made like the introduction of beer in supermarkets. Correlation is not cause. 
Regardless of how I vote on this part I want to endorse the other policies in the bill that focus on youth harm and the most important one of those I think is the express permission that parents will need to get in order to allow young people to drink in their homes. I do not think that change has been given anything like the credit it deserves. I get the point young people make when they say that they are not the only age group that experience excessive drinking. But older drinkers with problems start as younger drinkers with problems and younger drinkers definitely seem to drink more and more regularly than a generation ago. 
If we are to make meaningful change we need to start with the young but I am convinced that the law changes will not do that. What we need is an attitude change and a culture change and I want to see our young leaders bringing about that culture change. We see it in smoking and in drink-driving and in a plethora of other youth issues. What I do not yet see is young leaders taking the lead in developing and driving that responsible drinking culture. I hear lots of platitudes about individual rights and harm minimisation and so on. Students at Otago University plead the case to enable 5000 of them to go to Hyde Street every year and get completely trolleyed. As long as they clean up after themselves they think that is all right. There are TV ads that say that getting completely smashed but not driving home is OK not that getting smashed in the first place is not OK. 
Our Young Nats have led the Keep it 18 campaign. I get their arguments about being old enough to fight fornicate vote etc. but not old enough to buy a beer at the end of a hard day’s study. They have reminded us about the National Party value of individual freedom. I want to remind them of that other National Party value: personal responsibility. So I say to Young Nats president Sean Topham and the other regional chairs: you are the future leaders of our party possibly of our country. Take leadership on this issue. Lead the change in the discourse amongst our young. Actively promote the message that alcohol consumption is normal but excessive consumption is not that getting trashed is dumb in the same way that smoking or drink-driving is dumb that messages on campus should be that the taxpayer is entitled to expect that their hard-earned taxpayer money which is funding students’ education is not thrown up against the wall of the Captain Cook Tavern every Thursday to Sunday. Show that sort of leadership and I will show support and vote to Keep it 18.