By: Katie Bradford-Crozier | Friday, June 15, 2012 6:00 AM

It's been a busy week for the bees in the Beehive, but one topic will be humming around in the back of all politicians mind: how to vote on the drinking age.

The controversial Alcohol Reform Bill is due to come back to the debating chamber for its committee stage sometime in the next couple of months - a crucial stage at which many amendments to the Bill will be proposed.

The most contentious of those is the ones that provide options for our drinking age - keep it 18, raise it to 20, or have a split purchase age.

It'll be a conscience vote for all parties except the Greens, who've decided to vote together for the age to stay at 18.

Many MPs are out talking to their electorates or communities about what they want, and more than one has said they will vote to raise the age, even if that goes against what they personally believe, because that's what voters have told them they want.

But the issue is really whether the age is the be all and end all, as some seem to believe.

Thirteen years ago, when parliament was discussing lowering the age, the same issues were at stake then as now. As a 17-year-old, I spoke in media about the effect that would or wouldn't have on people my age.

It seems nothing much has changed in that time, the lessons haven't been learnt and the problems with our drinking culture, and the arguments for and against the purchase age being 18, are still the same.

It's not just about the age, it's about our culture, the availability of alcohol, peer pressure and the natural desire of teenagers to want to try new things.

Teenagers have never had a problem getting access to alcohol, and never will. The pricing of drinks aimed at teens is often pointed out, but when the age was lowered in 1999 the price of a RTD was cheaper than now - 50 bottles of the revoltingly sweet drinks were around $50.

Giving teens something to do that is affordable, fun and social - and doesn't involve alcohol or any form of drug - is a much more important way of combating the issues than lowering or raising the drinking age. Particularly in rural or semi-rural communities, this is a massive issue, alongside drink driving.

It seems some want to focus on easy solutions to what is a difficult problem. The reforms are being looked at as a whole package, not just the purchase age, but it's how they vote on the age that MPs will be remembered for when the Alcohol Reform Bill is looked at in the future.