Fiji drinking age lowered to 18

Updated May 21, 2009 10:07:43

Fiji's Cabinet has agreed to lower the alcohol drinking age from 21-years-of-age to 18, angering the country's Methodist Church. Fiji Attorney General says it brings the Liquor Act into line with other legislation.

Presenter: Barbara Heggen
Speaker: Dixon Seeto, President of Fiji Islands Hotel and Tourism Association; Tevita Banivanua, Deputy General Secretary of Fiji's Methodist Church; Aiyez Sayed-Khaiyum, Fiji Attorney General

BARBARA HEGGEN: In 2006, Fiji's democratically elected government of Laisenia Qarase raised the country's drinking age from 18 to 21 after perceived pressure from the Methodist Church. Fiji's cabinet has now reversed that change to the Liquor Act and brought the legal drinking age back down to 18. It's a change that Attorney-General Aiyez Sayed-Khaiyum says brings about consistency.

AIYEZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: On a broader scale of things, obviously, what we are looking at is bringing uniformity into the set of laws that we have, and that is that we consider persons who are the age 18 - they are adults, they are decision makers. As you know under the UN declaration a person stops being a child once they reach the age of 18. At the moment, for example, or previously under the old 1997 constitution, a person could be enlisted in the police force and the military, they pay taxes, if they commit a crime they go to the adult prison. So this is part and parcel of a wider program to bring uniformity in our laws.

BARBARA HEGGEN: The Fiji Islands Hotel and Tourism Association is happy with the decision, saying the impact on tourism will be a positive one. President Dixon Seeto.

DIXON SEETO: It was not only the tourism industry because it meant that every bar and everywhere where there's liquor sold or served, you know, you had to be very careful that you were not selling to a person who was under the age of 21. We have tourists from a countries like yours where I think the drinking age is 18, yes. So if you can drink at home the natural tendency is it's OK in Fiji because, you know, it's OK at home, whereas it wasn't and this is where some of the conflict that arose - that it was OK in the tourists' home and it wasn't OK here. And it caused a lot of problems and was also a hassle in terms of making sure there was compliance. And you know teenagers nowadays, you can't tell their age and as a result, do you ask a guy to carry his passport around? I mean, you don't but you don't want to fall foul of the law either, so this is where the complication arose.

BARBARA HEGGEN: The Methodist Church, however, is not so pleased. Deputy General Secretary Tevita Banivanua says the social impacts will be devastating. He believes alcohol already plays a significant role in social decay and says decisions shouldn't always just come down to money

TEVITA BANIVANUA: We can't give in to anything like this, which the people may see as positive because of money and things like that set back in the long term, it will be detrimental to the life of our younger, young people.

BARBARA HEGGEN: Mr Sayed-Khaiyum says he understands the concerns of the Methodist Church but says that the positives of the decision to lower the drinking age outweigh the negatives.

AIYEZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: Well, you know, I think it also does bring about corruption also, because you know there is a need and a demand and if there's an overwhelming need and demand people will try to fulfil those needs and demands. The point is, is that it brings about consistency, it brings about transparency and, you know, you'll probably find that many of the pubs and the bars were actually allowing people who were below 21 because it's very hard to police and there's a need, there's a demand for it. And it's basically about consistency and transparency so people don't actually have to look the other way.