Royal Com. ‘ignored’

Press, 17 September 1976, Page 3

Royal Com. ‘ignored’

Parliamentary reporter

“If 18-year-olds are allowed to vote for the Hon. Mr Bert Walker, then surely they should be permitted to drink to his health,” said Mr S. Pearson, Dominion chairman of Young Nationals, in a press statement yesterday, Mr Pearson was commenting on the opposition of the Minister of Social Welfare (Mr Walker) to the lowering of the drinking age to 18. “Mr Walker is totally ignoring the recommendations of the Royal Commission on

the sale of liquor, 1974,” Mr Pearson said. “In its recommendations to Parliament the commission stated that after considering all relevant factors ‘we conclude that the law should be amended to reduce from 20 years to 18

years the age at which persons may lawfully purchase and consume liquor on licensed premises.’ “In his arguments against the lowering of the drinking age Mr Walker is presuming that the lowering of the age to 18 will result in more al-

’ cohol being consumed,” Mr Pearson said. “Research conducted by the National So- ■ ciety on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency shows that ; in 1966, already 78 per cent ' of people in the age range 15 to 17 drank alcohol quite I regularly.

“The Royal Commission on the sale of liquor concluded in its report that the present law has been so persistently broken and ignored that it gives rise to the contention that it lacks the support of public opinion,” said Mr Pearson?