Underage drinking in private homes

You could face a large fine if you supply alcohol to an under-18 in your home without their parent or guardian’s consent.

Providing alcohol in your home

It is legal to provide alcohol to a minor in a private home if:

you are the minor’s parent or legal guardian or you have the parent or guardian’s consent (permission) to provide alcohol
the minor’s alcohol drinking is supervised by a responsible adult.

These laws, part of the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998, help ensure parents and legal guardians:

are involved in how their child is supplied alcohol in someone else’s home
know that their child is not drinking alcohol, without their knowledge, when visiting friends’ houses.

Before you provide alcohol to a minor in your home, you must get:

the consent of the minor’s parent or legal guardian (if that’s not you)
consent in writing or verbally.

It can be as simple as a note saying ‘I give consent for my son to drink alcohol at ’s house’.

Without consent, if you provide alcohol to a minor in your home you could be fined more than $24,000.

Responsible supervision

The law requires an adult to responsibly supervise the minor drinking alcohol.

This is to ensure that drinking is done responsibly and with minimal risk of alcohol-related harm.

By law, the supervising adult (aged 18 or older) must be:

the parent, guardian or spouse of the minor or have their permission to provide alcohol to the minor.
able to demonstrate that they can responsibly supervise minors drinking alcohol.

To demonstrate responsible supervision, the adult must actively consider:

the age of the minor
whether the adult supplying the alcohol is intoxicated
whether the minor is eating food with the alcohol
whether the person supplying alcohol is supervising the minor’s alcohol intake
the quantity and type of alcohol supplied
the period of time in which the alcohol is supplied
whether the person under 18 is intoxicated.

This becomes important when applying the law.

For example, if police are called to attend a party with under 18s, the supervising adult may be penalised if they cannot prove they considered these factors when providing alcohol.

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Updated 20 November 2025