Rudd wants drinking age lifted to 21
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Updated
Kevin Rudd chats to students after last night's Q and A (ABC News: Renee Trezise )
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he would personally like the drinking age to be raised to 21 in Australia.
During a forum with 200 young people aired on the ABC's Q&A program last night, Mr Rudd was asked whether he had ever considered lifting the minimum legal drinking age from 18, given the number of young people involved in road accidents.
Mr Rudd said there had been a few discussions about it, and personally "of course" he would like to raise it, but more evidence would be needed in order for it to become policy.
This is the exchange between Mr Rudd and presenter Tony Jones from last night's program:
Tony Jones: "Let's get a specific answer to Linna Wei's question about raising the legal drinking age to 21, would you consider it?"
Kevin Rudd: "I don't have the evidence in front of me to say whether we can or whether we can't. I just want to be straight up with you and say-"
TJ: " Would you like to?"
KR: "Of course! I mean - you mean would I like to?"
TJ: "Would you like to raise the drinking age to 21? - 'Of course!'"
KR: "Ah, I believe in something called evidence based policy, which is if the evidence is there and it's capable of being proven that it works, then we look at these things and make a decision. But you're asking me for a personal impression? We don't run policy that way, Tony."
The Young Liberals have pounced on Mr Rudd's remarks, saying a change to the law would deprive 18-year-olds of their rights as adults.
The national president of the Young Liberals Movement, Richard Wilson, says it would be unacceptable for Mr Rudd to impose such a ban on people over the age of 18.
"The majority of young people are behaving in a very responsible manner and for Government to come in and ban them from having a drink or having a good time is not the right thing to do," he said.
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76 needed to form government
State of the Parties
76 seats required for victory
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90.3% counted.
Updated Fri Sep 3 09:26AM
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| Party | % Vote | Swing | Won | Predict | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor | 38.1 | -5.3 | 72 | |||
| Coalition | 43.7 | +1.6 | 73 | |||
| Greens | 11.6 | +3.8 | 1 | |||
| Others | 6.6 | -0.1 | 4 | |||
Changing Seats
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90.3% counted.
Last updated Fri Sep 3 09:26AM
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| Time | Count % | Electorate | Held By | Margin | 2PP % | Swing | Predict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14:37 | 93.5 | La Trobe | L/NP | 0.5 | 50.9 | 1.4% to ALP | ALP GAIN |
| 10:06 | 86.5 | McEwen | L/NP | 0.0 | 55.4 | 5.4% to ALP | ALP GAIN |
| 16:37 | 88.5 | Solomon | ALP | 0.2 | 51.9 | 2.0% to CLP | CLP GAIN |
| 14:37 | 81.2 | Melbourne | ALP | 4.7 | 55.6 | 10.3% to GRN | GRN GAIN |
| 16:38 | 93.8 | Denison | ALP | 15.3 | 51.2 | 16.5% from ALP | IND GAIN |
| 17:07 | 90.3 | Bennelong | ALP | 1.4 | 53.6 | 5.0% to LIB | LIB GAIN |
| 19:08 | 91.5 | Gilmore * | ALP | 0.4 | 55.2 | 5.6% to LIB | LIB WIN |
| 11:23 | 92.7 | Hasluck | ALP | 0.8 | 50.6 | 1.4% to LIB | LIB GAIN |
| 16:37 | 92.0 | Macarthur * | ALP | 0.5 | 53.0 | 3.5% to LIB | LIB WIN |
| 11:23 | 92.5 | Macquarie | ALP | 0.3 | 51.2 | 1.5% to LIB | LIB GAIN |
| 18:54 | 90.3 | Swan * | ALP | 0.3 | 52.6 | 2.8% to LIB | LIB WIN |
| 16:53 | 91.5 | Bonner | ALP | 4.5 | 52.6 | 7.1% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 19:24 | 88.4 | Brisbane | ALP | 4.6 | 51.1 | 5.7% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 16:52 | 92.1 | Dawson | ALP | 2.6 | 52.4 | 5.0% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 12:51 | 93.7 | Dickson * | ALP | 0.8 | 55.2 | 5.9% to LNP | LNP WIN |
| 15:37 | 89.6 | Flynn | ALP | 2.2 | 53.2 | 5.4% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 11:21 | 90.6 | Forde | ALP | 3.4 | 51.6 | 4.9% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 15:22 | 92.2 | Herbert * | ALP | 0.0 | 52.1 | 2.1% to LNP | LNP WIN |
| 17:23 | 90.2 | Leichhardt | ALP | 4.1 | 54.5 | 8.6% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 16:37 | 92.0 | Longman | ALP | 1.9 | 51.9 | 3.8% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
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