Rudd wants to lift legal drinking age

AAP

Poll

Should the legal drinking age be raised to 21?

This poll ended on 30 November 2011.

No. Only a wowser would suggest that.

10%

No. Kids can make responsible decisions at 18.

18%

No. No point. Kids will drink anyway.

36%

Yes. Hopefully they're a little older and a little wiser.

27%

Alcohol is a drug and should be banned completely.

8%

This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

Related links

• Girls' brains hit hard by drinking

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd says 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, he says.

"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," Mr Rudd said, when quizzed on ABC Television's Q&A; program on Monday night.

Mr Rudd told the 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.