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2010/02: Should the legal drinking age in Australia be raised?





Introduction to the media issue

Video clip at right: An ABC 7.30 Report segment on a recently-released survey by health insurer MBS, showing, among other things, that many parents believe that allowing their children to drink alcohol in the home helps those children to "handle" drinking as adults. .
If you cannot see this clip, it will be because video is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows viewing of video clips.

What they said...
'One of the most toxic things that a young brain can encounter is a high level of blood alcohol'
Professor Ian Hickie, the executive director of Sydney University's Brain and Mind Research Institute

'Alcohol will always be a part of Australian culture. And an overwhelming majority of Australians consume alcohol responsibly and want to continue to be able to do so'
Hugh Tobin, the managing editor of the Institute of Public Affairs Review

The issue at a glance
On November 19, 2009, Professor Ian Hickie, the executive director of Sydney University's Brain and Mind Research Institute called for the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to push for the legal drinking age in Australia to be raised to 19 in order to break the connection between school leaving and drinking.
Professor Hickie was responding to international research which demonstrates that the brains of adolescents and those in their early twenties are particularly susceptible to damage from alcohol.
The following day, November 20, 2009, the federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, dismissed calls to increase the drinking age.  
The minister said the Government's preventive health task force had not called for an increase in the drinking age.  Ms Roxon stated, 'Of course people in the community will raise these issues and will continue to do that and we will, of course, continue to follow that debate.'  At this point, however, the federal government appears to have no plans to precipitate that debate.
Dr John Herron, the chairman of the government-appointed Australian National Council on Drugs, supported Professor Hickie's call. Rob Moodie, the chairman of the preventive health task force, said he was not against lifting the drinking age but that we should focus on enforcing current legislation.