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Since one of the wars (I'm out of it... fudge off), the aussie age of consent has been 18. This was because the government was conscripting 18 year olds, yet they were too young to vote (when AOC was still 21). Instead of conscripting a the minimum age of 21 they lowered the AOC to be fair. Meaning we could vote, drink etc.
Well, to my understanding it was...

Anyway, our prime-minister has discussed raising the drinking age to 21, and nothing else. Meaning we can still join the army, vote etc, but we can't drink! I can see why it might be "discussed", but of course I don't want it implemented... I'm 17!!

Anyway, I found this facebook group and, with it, a funny response to a very intelligent rebuttal.:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=28...opic=18666

This is an article I read about the issue (off facebook)

Facebook Wrote:Basic Info Name:Aussies against Kevin Rudd increasing the drinking age to 21Category:Organisations - Political Organisations
Description:Kevin Rudd hates alcohol and wants to stop you from drinking it.

First he introduced the 70% alcopop tax making everything from rum and coke to vodka cruisers much more expensive.

Now it has been confirmed that he would like to see the drinking age rise to 21.

What more would you expect from a man who claims to have only ever been drunk twice in his life. (Once on his 37th Birthday and when he visited the Scores strip club in New York).

This is a call to the young people of Australia to add your friends and vote this communist teetotaling dweeb out, before he takes away any more of our freedoms.

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In the latest news - Tony Abbott has slammed Rudd and supports the drinking age staying at 18.


http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story...52,00.html

--Kevin Rudd wants to lift legal drinking age to 21--


EIGHTEEN-year-olds can vote, drive, join the army and go to war so they should also be allowed to drink alcohol, says Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

Mr Abbott said he didn't support a nanny state or the wowser instinct.

He said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd came very close to falling into a pretty serious trap when he endorsed a drinking age of 21.

Asked if he thought the PM was a wowser, Mr Abbott said he didn't support the wowser instinct.

Mr Abbott's comments came as a national online poll showed Australia should increase the legal drinking age to 21.
Vote: Should the drinking age be raised?
The Punch: Kids give Rudd a caning


Today, more than 6000 people voted in informal online polls on News Ltd websites across the country and 57 per cent backed a booze ban for anyone under 21.

In NSW and Queensland, more than 66 per cent of online voters were on Kevin's more teetotal team.

Many readers who backed an older age limit said it would reduce booze-soaked violence, decrease binge drinking and cut the national road toll.

Mr Abbott said: "I don't support irresponsible drinking, but I think the vast majority of Australians know how to handle alcohol and I don't believe there should be any change in the legal age for drinking."

"You can get a job at 18, you can vote at 18, you can go into the army and go to war at 18. I think it's reasonable that you should be able to have a drink at 18."

Mr Rudd said he'd personally like to see the legal drinking age lifted to 21 years.

But there would have to be rigorous debate and evidence that the policy could reduce binge drinking before the government would consider it.

"If the evidence is there and it is capable of being proven that it works, then we (will) look at these things and make a decision," he said.

Mr Abbott said there was evidence all sorts of things could be safer if draconian restrictions were imposed on ordinary life.

"But we live with risk. That is part of ordinary life," he said.

Mr Rudd told the ABC's Q&A's audience, including 200 high school students, that booze, like alcopops, was a concerning factor in P-Plate driving deaths.

"(The) drinking rates of young teenagers (is) going through the roof ... and hugely affecting their ability to, frankly, manoeuvre a car."

He stopped short of calling for a federal intervention, but said "a whole lot of work" was needed to address the alarming road toll.

The federal government was working to regulate car safety standards across the states, and automatic systems in cars for better handling, he added.
(read less)
Kevin Rudd hates alcohol and wants to stop you from drinking it.

First he introduced the 70% alcopop tax making everything from rum and coke to vodka cruisers much more expensive.

Now it has been confirmed that he would like to see the drinking age rise to 21.

What more would you expect from a man who claims to have only ever been drunk twice in his life. (Once on his 37th Birthday and when he visited the Scores strip club in New York).

This is a call to the young people of Australia to add... (read more)Privacy type:Open: All content is public.

Well i am obviously a skip so i have an opinion lol.
I feel this is being addressed because of all the crap going on lately. Stabbings and bashings for sport.
Sure its always been an issue but where i live its getting far too frequent.

(i blame immigration largely)

I think it's a waste of time, if younger people really want alcohol they are going to get it, someone will always buy you alcohol when you're under age. What's going to happen with the nightclubs, pubs, bars etc? will you have to be 21 to enter a licensed venue too?
or what you can enter but you can't drink? They are just going to get trashed before they head out into town, it's not going to fix anything, in America the legal drinking age is 21 and look how fu.cked up they are (no offense)
As for the alcopop price rise, pfft..now they just buy the bottles and mix their own drinks, so they are getting twice as hammered.

I agree with Zork. This isn't going to stop anything. I don't drink anymore, but when I did, I had no problem getting beer and liquor. I guess it's just a formality, 'cause if they SAY that teens ca ndrink, then it makes them look bad. I dunno. In America, the bars that allow 18 year olds usually have some form of letting the bartender know if you can drink or not. For example, at the local gay club, if you're 21, you get a rainbow wristband, and if you're under 21, you get like a red one or something. The bartenders aren't supposed to serve to people with red ones, but like Zork said, they just get fudged up before going anyway.

In Quebec Canada the age to drink is 18. Hell hasn't raised. If anything its calmed down in recent years

Exactly, I'm under age and I have never had any trouble getting grog, or anything like it!
I think it will just make people get even more wasted. If its prohibited, it makes you want it more! Seriously, when your underage, you get hammered. When you are allowed to get it its no biggie!

(02-10-2010, 05:37 PM)Extasey Wrote: [ -> ]Exactly, I'm under age and I have never had any trouble getting grog, or anything like it!
I think it will just make people get even more wasted. If its prohibited, it makes you want it more! Seriously, when your underage, you get hammered. When you are allowed to get it its no biggie!

You sound like my sister :p

(02-10-2010, 05:43 PM)Aristotle Wrote: [ -> ]You sound like my sister :p

Is that a good thing?
:S

(02-10-2010, 05:47 PM)Extasey Wrote: [ -> ]Is that a good thing?
:S

She in the legal limit now, so yes it is ;)

(02-10-2010, 03:30 AM)Extasey Wrote: [ -> ]the aussie age of consent has been 18.

I don't think you mean the age of consent, the age of consent here is 16 and does not relate to drinking

While my sensible side says that it might help, I think in reality it would take a long time for its effects to actually have an impact because our whole culture would need to change quite a bit. This won't happen though, if KRudd looked more seriously into this then he would loose 4 years of voters. I would be interested to know what old Tony Abbot thinks of this, his opinions always seem so inconsistent when it comes to issues like this...