Parents invited to air grievances over alcohol laws

Parents were "not powerless" over teenagers' access to alcohol and were being urged to air their grievances and concerns at a large public forum on alcohol law reform in Queenstown, the resort's alcohol action group said.

Queenstown United in Violence and Alcohol Reduction chairwoman Ann Fowler said there were huge implications in the law reform proposals for families with young people and they needed to get involved in the process.

It was "a 24-year opportunity" to submit of the Sale of Liquor Act and parents needed to know they were "not powerless" in this decision-making process, Mrs Fowler said.

The lowering of the drinking age to 18, 10 years ago, had opened up a whole can of worms and disempowered parents, she said.

"The pseudo drinking age went down to about 13 or 14. There were huge implications that were widespread on the community: drink-driving, unplanned sex, violence and STIs (sexually transmitted infections)," Mrs Fowler said.

"The implications have been disastrous for young people. It just opened a floodgate. A lot of young people do things under the influence of alcohol and they just don't have the maturity and intellect to manage. It's hard enough for adults."

Parents were under huge pressures and the forum was their chance to air their concerns and hear the truth about what was really going on and the implications for supplying youngsters with alcohol in the future, should the new laws be adopted.

Senior Sergeant John Fookes, of Queenstown, Queenstown Mayor Clive Geddes and licensee representative Russell Gray, of Good Bars, would address the September 27 forum and be on hand to answer questions.

Mayoral and council candidates had also been invited to air their views on the proposals.

Recent controlled purchase operations in Queenstown found no bottle stores selling to underagers – the sales were being made to parents who were supplying their children. Research showed this clearly, she said.

"These proposals (in law reform) look at responsible supply, what does that mean, should parents have to supervise?"

Parents needed to be aware that they could be fined in certain circumstances under the new proposals.

"There are a lot of repercussions parents need to be aware of," Mrs Fowler said.

Wakatipu High School principal Lyn Cooper also urged parents to unite, be responsible about alcohol and attend the forum to make sure they were "armed with knowledge".

The forum will be held at Queenstown's Memorial Hall, September 27, from 7.30-9pm.

- © Fairfax NZ News