Land Transport (Speed Limits Validation and Other Matters) Bill

on behalf of the Minister of Transport: I move, That the Land Transport (Speed Limits Validation and Other Matters) Bill be now read a second time. This bill corrects technical legal issues and the processes used to make and review by-laws setting speed limits. These processes are contained in a variety of laws, local government Acts, the Government Roading Powers Act, and the Land Transport Act. The bill ensures that posted speed limits remain enforceable. I want to acknowledge the contributions by various parties to the first reading, and I appreciate their support for this retrospective legislation. I also want to add my support to the intervention by Dr Norman in respect of how this matter differs from other retrospective and validating legislation that occasionally comes before this House, in the sense that this is simply a verification of what was believed to be the law, in any event.

Mr O’Rourke described the gross delay in rectifying the situation. I think I understand what the member was intending to say, but one could infer from that comment that there had been a gross delay in rectifying a situation that the Government had become aware of. As the Minister of Police, I want to make it very clear that New Zealand Police had no knowledge that the speed limits that it was enforcing may have had some problems in respect of the law, and, indeed, it could not have continued to enforce those speed limits had it been aware of that. I think it is very important to make that distinction; that only very recently did this come to the attention of the New Zealand Government and that it did so upon advice from the Horowhenua-Kāpiti district.

Horowhenua-Kāpiti is an area where there has been, in the past, a significant challenge with road safety and an unacceptably high rate of death and injury on some of the roads within its control. The Government has invested very heavily in improving the quality of the roading network in that region, and as a consequence, it is seeing marked reductions in the accident rate on many of those stretches of road. I think members would agree that that is something that we want to continue to enforce and that any uncertainty about the enforcement of speed limits in that area, and, indeed, in any other part of the country, would be an unfortunate thing. So in order to rectify that immediately we have come here under urgency.

Road crashes do have a terrible impact on individuals, families, and communities, and no matter what causes a crash, speed is a crucial factor in whether someone is killed or badly injured, or even whether there is a crash at all. To help ensure safety on our roads for everyone, it is important that there is no ambiguity about the validity of speed limits. I commend the bill to the House.

Bill read a second time.

In Committee

Part 1 Preliminary provisions