Conscience vote will decide alcohol purchase age

Raising the drinking age will be a conscience vote for the National Party. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

Raising the alcohol purchase age from 18 to 20 will be a conscience vote for the National Party.

However, the legislation around alcohol reform has not yet been released.

Justice Minister Simon Power said the legislation was due to have its first reading before Christmas.

A report from the Law Commission released in April which made 153 recommendations on reducing the harm caused by alcohol, including tax increases and a wide-reaching tightening of rules around the sale of alcohol.

It also included raising the drinking age and the limit of blood alcohol for drivers.

The National Party caucus meeting this morning also discussed future legislation around tightening up drinking driving rules.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce said the party planned to introduce a zero drink drive limit for recidivist drink drivers and a zero drink drive limit for drivers under 20 years of age.

Mr Joyce said there would also be tougher penalties for people who drink and drive causing death.

He said National would also look at introducing alcohol interlocks for repeat drink-drivers.

The party would also commission research to determine the level of risk posed by drivers with a blood alcohol limit of between 0.05 and 0.08.

"In the meantime, I stress that 0.08 is not a target. People whose judgement is impaired by alcohol should not be driving regardless of their measured alcohol level - if they are they can be charged with careless or dangerous driving or for being incapable of having proper control of the vehicle," Mr Joyce said.

Mr Joyce also said the caucus had affirmed that "all transport safety measures will continue to be voted on as a party".

That means Labour MP Darren Hughes' member's bill that would lower the drink-drive level from 0.8 grams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood to 0.6 would be decided by a party vote rather than a conscience vote, as previously indicated by the Prime Minister, should it be drawn from the ballot.

Keep it 18, a group representing young people and opposed to raising the drinking age, said National's decision to move to a conscience vote would make things easier for the group.

Spokeswoman Jenna Raeburn said lobbying MPs individually would help Keep it 18's campaign.

The group's Facebook page currently has 6995 fans and Ms Raeburn said most of those people are New Zealanders.

She said members have been lobbying MPs and it is "going pretty well".

"Most MPs we have been talking to are really open to talking to young people," Ms Raeburn said.

Asked which MPs supported keeping the drinking age at 18, Ms Raeburn said she could not say.

Keep it 18 is made up of the youth wings of the National, Labour, Act and Green parties.

The tragic cost of booze

* King's College boarder James Webster, 16, was found dead on May 9, after drinking heavily outside an Auckland party the night before.

* Warren John Jenkins of Orewa was nearly two times over the blood-alcohol limit when he crashed his four-wheel drive ute into Katherine "Rin" Kennedy's car on March 17. The Kerikeri mother died in hospital.

* Luke McGregor was over the legal breath-alcohol limit when he killed his younger brother Jordan, 23, in a "car-surfing" accident on Mt Maunganui beach in February.

* Frances Stubbs was over the breath-alcohol limit when the car she was driving fled a Blenheim police checkpoint on March 19 and crashed into a vehicle driven by Penelope Phillips, who died.

- additional reporting Adam Bennett, NZ Herald staff