LIQUOR LICENSING LAWS

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (15:30): During question time today the Minister for Health mentioned how it is good to have ideas. I note that, over the last few months, the federal parliament has been having a debate about the alcopops and binge drinking issues, and that has caused some community debate with respect to how society goes about tackling those matters. While this is not Liberal Party policy (or, indeed, my policy), it is always good, I think, to throw ideas out there to see what the community thinks about possible reforms within the community. So, for the sake of creating some community debate, I thought I would make some comments about possible changes to the liquor licensing or drinking laws in South Australia.

It seems to me that, since the education system has been changed over the last decade or so, in that students are now older when they finish their secondary education, that has had the unintended consequence of having more students of legal drinking age in the school environment. For example, if you have a son who is in a year 12 football team, at the end of season celebration half the team is 18 and can drink and the other half is under 18 and cannot drink. That creates a bit of a dilemma for the lucky parent who gets to host the end of season football celebration, because half of them roll up with slabs of legal drinks under their arm and they sometimes—and this might be a surprise to members in the house—share it with their friends who are not quite yet of legal drinking age if they were drinking in a public place. That creates some dilemmas for families who wish to host functions in good faith.

The police force has a very good program for those who want to host parties about how to go about hosting them and not fall foul of the law. It would be my strong recommendation to parents thinking about hosting a party on behalf of the loyal son or daughter to obtain some really good advice before they do it, because the parties are a lot more fun if the police do not close them down. That has been the advice to me: if you have a party it is a lot better if you can go the full distance and not run out halfway through.

The issue I raise for the consideration of the community is this. To try to offer some support to the schools and those families that host that style of event (and they are happening every weekend throughout the state on a regular basis), I ask the community to give some thought as to whether, given the changes to the education system and the fact that we now have a lot of drinking age students still at secondary school, we would be better to make the drinking age 18, or out of secondary school (in other words, if you are a secondary school student you cannot drink), and whether that would make it simpler for families and schools to administer this social issue.

I think it might make it simpler, because if someone holds an end of year event they know that every student coming cannot drink. If you as a parent want to enforce that, you have some legal grounds upon which to do it. If you do not want to do that, that would be up to the parents or the families, obviously, but it would bring some clarity to the issue.

Most students leave school when they are 18, so it will not affect them for a long period—maybe six to nine months, maybe even less. I do think it is worth the community having the debate about whether it would not be easier for schools and families if the drinking age was tied to school attendance, as well as the age of 18 (whichever is the greater), and whether that would not be easier for the police, families and schools, and therefore bring some benefit to the system. I do stress, Madam Acting Speaker, it is not Liberal Party policy or, indeed, my policy: it is an idea for consultation.