KEY POINTS:
The drinking age will stay at 18 after MPs tonight voted with a strong 72-49 majority to defeat a bill that would have returned it to 20.
The vote on the second reading of the bill dismayed supporters who had argued passionately for it to be at least sent through to its committee stage.
The numbers were believed to have been finely balanced before the debate, and a government announcement that it would review restrictions on the sale of alcohol to under 18-year-olds apparently persuaded some undecided MPs to oppose it.
The review was conditional on the bill being defeated, and the announcement was made just a few hours before the debate began.
Some MPs who backed the bill said a review was a soft option and urged others to ignore it, but when the conscience votes were counted the majority against the bill was stronger than had been expected.
If the bill had survived its second reading, an amendment would have been considered at its committee stage to split the age, leaving it at 18 for drinking in bars but raising it to 20 for off licence purchases.
A third reading vote would then have decided whether the bill would become law.
But the option was denied by the negative vote on the second reading, and the Sale of Liquor (Youth Alcohol Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill is off the agenda.
The bill's sponsor, Labour MP Martin Gallagher, opened the debate and told Parliament opinion polls had shown that between 65 per cent and 71 per cent of people wanted to reverse the 1999 decision which lowered the age from 20 to 18.
"That decision in 1999 was detrimental. There has been a trickle-down effect and people under 18 now find it easier to get alcohol," he said.
"It has had devastating consequences for young people."
Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton, one of the strongest supporters of raising the age, said alcohol was the single most destructive drug in New Zealand.
"We have to back communities. We know this bill will make a difference, because we know that lowering the age made things worse," he said.
New Zealand First's Ron Mark represented the attitude of most other MPs who supported the bill when he said he knew it was not the sole answer to the problems of youth drinking, but something had to be done.
"Are we going to do something, or are we going to do nothing?" he asked MPs.
But opponents argued the bill would not help, and could even worsen problems because raising the age would mean more unsupervised drinking by young people.
They said it stigmatised responsible 18 and 19-year-olds, who were not the ones causing trouble and who were mostly responsible drinkers.
"We will strip away the legal rights of adults," said Green Party MP Metiria Turei.
"The problem is the failure to enforce existing law -- there is less of that than there was before 1999."
Labour's Jill Pettis said she was not ready to give up on responsible 18 and 19-year-olds.
"This debate is targeting young people unfairly," she said.
"What we need is an honest debate about our attitudes to alcohol -- it is parents who supply about half the alcohol to people under 18."
The debate ranged across the spectrum of drinking problems and their causes, and all the MPs who spoke had serious concerns about binge drinking by young people and particularly by the 14 to 17 age group.
But they differed on the way to deal with that, and those who voted against the bill said raising the age would do nothing to stem the supply of alcohol to minors because it was not illegal -- only purchasing it was against the law.
Cabinet Minister David Parker said he had a 13-year-old daughter, and if someone gave her alcohol there was nothing in law he could do about it.
The defeat of the bill, which was originally drafted by former Progressive Party MP Matt Robson, means the Government will go ahead with its review.
Justice Minister Mark Burton and Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor said it would look specifically at the effectiveness of current restrictions on the sale and supply of liquor to young people under 18.
"It's important that we have a complete picture of how people under 18 are obtaining alcohol and whether we are reducing this access or not," the ministers said.
- NZPA
