Is this really an Equal Opportunity issue

or is it another way in which a law which had good intentions is being abused?

There is a "bar" in the CBD which want to ban anyone under the age of 21 after 9pm at night....and there has been an immediate outcry. They cannot do this! It is a breach of the Equal Opportunity Act! How dare they!

I know many people will disagree with me but I still believe that one of the biggest mistakes we made was lowering the age of majority from 21 to 18.  It was a mistake on many levels. 

Yes, I know the arguments about being able to go and fight for your country, about being able to go to work and being able to pay taxes and more. Yes, you can have sex and bring children into the world. If you happen to be a "single mum" then you will be encouraged to keep the child even if you are as young as sixteen or, in one case known to me, fourteen. 

Apparently all of this should give you the "right" to drink alcohol in a bar at age eighteen at whatever time of the day or night you wish. Really?

In this instance I think it is perfectly reasonable of the owners of the venue. It is after all their venue. You are there at their "invitation", nothing more and nothing less. They are not denying you the right to drink alcohol at their venue. They are simply saying they do not want you to do it there after a certain time.

There are in fact many other venues for the young at which they can imbibe alcohol. They may not be as "sophisticated" but they do exist. (Can a "bar" be sophisticated? I have not been there and am never likely to go but perhaps someone can enlighten me?)

I am not the only person who believes that universities took a turn for the worse when the legal age to both vote and consume alcohol was lowered to eighteen. "The "bar" on any university campus should be barred, "one of the law school staff told me. He had a point. As I am allergic (yes, actually allergic) to alcohol it was no hardship to me and I do not believe it would be any hardship to anyone else. Students do not need to consume alcohol at eleven in the morning to eleven at night - or later. Arguments that it is "controlled on campus" are nonsense. 

As I understand it (and I may be wrong) the legal age for the consumption of alcohol in America is twenty-one. I think it was brought in, against great opposition, by the Reagan administration. It showed a measurable difference in the number of road incidents in that age group. 

If I had my way we would raise the age at which you could get behind the wheel of a car to eighteen at minimum. We would also raise the age for the consumption of alcohol to twenty one at minimum and the age for voting to twenty one as well.

No, it would not be popular but perhaps young people need to earn the right to do these things by  continuing to study or paying some taxes first?