Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to take a very brief call in regard to the title and commencement, and I note this is where the Supplementary Order Paper 84 from Julie Anne Genter which seeks to have, effectively, an expiry provision for this piece of legislation has been put on the Table. The National Party will not be supporting that Supplementary Order Paper because, actually, as I mentioned earlier, this is not an issue which is going to go away in five years’ time. It’s not like we’re going to wake up in five years’ time and either people have stopped using illicit substances, or we’ve suddenly woken up and we’re accepting of the fact that people just drive down the road in some sort of fairyland or in whatever type of high they want to and we accept the consequences of that. That is not the type of future I want, it’s not the type of future I want for my children, and I don’t think it’s the type of future that New Zealanders want. So we will not be supporting that amendment to this piece of legislation.

In fact, we want to see this legislation in place for some time because, actually, it is important to give the police the tools they need to keep our roads safe and to be able to keep New Zealanders safe as they drive down the road. So we will not be supporting that piece of legislation.

We support the bill, as I’ve mentioned. It is a bill which has been coming for some time. It should have been passed when the National Party brought it in as a member’s bill on a number of occasions, but the Government finally did pick it up before the last election, and, finally, we’re at the final stages of this piece of legislation. I hope that we’ll be able to give effect to it as soon as possible. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Clause 1 agreed to.

Clause 2 agreed to.

The question is that the Hon Julie Anne Genter’s amendment to insert new clause 2A set out on Supplementary Order Paper 84 be agreed to.