PM defends son's King's school

Prime Minister John Key. Photo / Daily Post

As a parent, Prime Minister John Key had personal experience of the King's College ball on Saturday, picking up his 16-year-old son, Max, afterwards, and he said yesterday that he saw no sign of students being intoxicated.

But as a politician he said he was concerned at the drug and alcohol culture prevalent in New Zealand and signalled two areas of likely changes to alcohol and drug laws.

Mr Key defended the college as a parent, saying nothing in its culture set it apart from many other schools.

"In my experience there is nothing unique or different about King's College to many, many other schools around the country."

He believed the school had covered all of its responsibilities and had talked to both students and parents about their responsibility in relation to the ball.

"Every person there had to introduce their partner to the house master and they followed the normal steps that one would expect.

"They demanded that it was an alcohol and drug-free environment."

Mr Key said one possible law change, in line with Law Commission recommendations, would be to require hosts of private parties to have parental consent before serving liquor to under 18-year-olds. Another, also suggested by the commission, could require suppliers of legal psychoactive drugs such as Kronic to show the substances were safe before they were approved for sale.