Monday, 22 November, 2004

Adams: Focus on youth binge drinking a good thing

United Future youth affairs spokesman Paul Adams has welcomed recent renewed discussion on the drinking age, saying that is an issue that needs to be addressed.

“The tragic death of Massey student Willy Cranswick clearly shows again the dangers for any person involved with binge drinking and the New Zealand public’s concern with this type of behaviour.

Mr Adams is sponsoring a Member’s Bill that would address this very issue.

“My Bill approaches binge drinking from a very common sense point of view and will not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

“Personally, I have confidence in the vast majority of young people in our nation, and as the first step in addressing our binge drinking problem it's not necessary to ban all under 20 year olds from having a social drink in a licensed and supervised establishment, and the age for that would remain at 18.

“However my Bill will bring in greater responsibility for those supplying alcohol and will make it illegal for any person under 20 years to buy alcohol for consumption at other than a licensed premises or private venue.”

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>