Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a privilege to stand and take a call on the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill. This bill particularly concerns the issues of fleeing drivers and the safety concerns that result from people misusing a vehicle and refusing to stop for police.

There have been a number of these cases throughout New Zealand where we do have drivers who flee from police and, unfortunately, there are times when that leads to devastating crashes and devastating injuries and deaths from both, those who are in the vehicles that are fleeing but also other vehicles.

I do want to just put on record, and I have spoken about this case in a previous call on this bill. In 2018, we lost a woman in Nelson who was driving to work, early on a weekend morning, and was traveling down a rural road, and there was a fleeing driver who was fleeing from police at the time and crashed into the vehicle and, devastatingly, she lost her life, leaving her teenage children without a mother. The ripples of that were felt throughout the community.

I think we all in this House acknowledge that the issue of fleeing drivers is one that there’s no excuse and no reasonable excuse at all for people who behave in that way, and the impacts felt on the people who are the victims of such terrible offences are devastating.

One of the matters relating to fleeing drivers I just want to note, is about the role of the police in making that risk assessment on the day on their ability to—of whether it is safe or not to pursue a fleeing driver. It is a really challenging psychological issue, where there are, unfortunately, times when, by being chased, it can lead to you a young person, particularly, speeding up even more and actually make the situation worse. One of the things we have to take care real care about in this House is ensuring that police can make the right operational decisions based on a proper risk assessment of the risk of pursuing a fleeing driver.

I know that has been a matter of some debate at times in this House and in the public, but, ultimately, we do need to rely on the expertise of the police to make those decisions, rather than politicians making those decisions.

But we are also very clear that such an offence is an offence. It’s a terrible offence. A vehicle is a very dangerous item for someone to use in such a way. It can do significant damage, just like any other weapon—and a vehicle can essentially become a weapon in these matters. So it’s important from the Government’s point of view that we are taking steps to really crack down on fleeing drivers, in terms of the offences that are there.

The Justice Committee has examined this bill and recommends that it be passed. It seeks to reduce unsafe behaviour on New Zealand roads by increasing the severity of enforcements for fleeing drivers. What it would do is amend the Land Transport Act to lengthen the period for which an enforcement officer may seize and impound a vehicle from the current 28 days to six months if a driver has failed to stop or remain stopped when required.

It also introduces a new offence if a person fails to provide information about a fleeing driver. So if someone has information and refuses to provide that information to the police, there’s a new power there for a vehicle to be seized and impounded for 28 days. It also increases the licence disqualification period after a second conviction for a failing-to-stop offence from one year to one to two years.

It is important that we send a very clear message as a House to people who wish to use vehicle in this way—that they can cause significant and severe damage to people contained in those vehicles and also any other vehicles or members of the public that they may, unfortunately, come in contact with if they are fleeing and fleeing at a very, very high speed.

I think, unfortunately, something that we probably all share in this House is a connection to people who have lost their lives on the roads. I have a cousin who lost his life on a road. I know far too many New Zealanders who’ve lost their lives on New Zealand roads. It’s important that this House continues to take our responsibility seriously to limit the potential for people’s lives to be lost on our roads.

This is an excellent bill. I do commend the Minister, I commend the Justice Committee for their work on it, and I commend it to the House.

A five-minute split call—Chris Penk.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can I pick up where the previous member Rachel Boyack has left off by thanking the Justice Committee for their work. We are close enough to the end of this parliamentary term that I’d like to make that a slightly more general remark in the sense that the Justice Committee has worked hard on a number of different bills—obviously all in the justice space one way or another, but it’s a very broad remit and I acknowledge the current chair of the Justice Committee, Vanushi Walters. Before her I think it was Ginny Andersen—now the Hon Ginny Andersen. I think that’s the extent of the chairs involved over this term of the Parliament. But on the occasions when I’ve been fortunate enough to participate, it seemed to me a good body of MPs who have been prepared to examine issues such as this in good faith and acknowledging the seriousness of the issues involved.

The consideration and indeed deliberation of this matter at select committee was not something that I took much active part in sir, but I have followed the debate, as I know you have and are still doing now, despite my best attempts. And, clearly, much thought is given to some of the competing considerations that are inherent whenever we’re talking about increasing the severity and speed of the administration of justice. So it’s right to take these issues very seriously.

If we think about the speed of enforcement, this is important for a number of different reasons. One is that it will promote confidence in the justice system if we have the consequences, roughly speaking, of offending being administered quickly, and we need to do that in a way that is most efficient while at the same time not reducing fundamental rights of persons who are charged and are entitled always to be presumed innocent unless and until such time as they’re proven guilty of a crime.

So the way that this balance has been struck within the bill, as referred to in the select committee report, is by enabling the serving of notices by electronic means. In 2023, it seems appropriate to allow the methods of delivery—albeit of bad news in the sense that it might be some sort of traffic infringement. But, of course, there’s much worse news that one can receive in relation to road safety, and Rachel Boyack has referred to those tragically in relation to loss within her own family and those whom she knows. I think she’s right. There will be many of us who are aware of such issues from a deeply personal place, and that’s tragic and it’s to be avoided, if at all we can. So for all the New Zealanders, and visitors to New Zealand, for that matter, who are involved in road safety incidents, whether at fault in the legal sense or merely involved by an accident of circumstance—of course, for all of these people we must take very seriously road safety measures such as are put forward in the bill.

That’s not to say that we agree with every detail in here, and others have spoken about the point to point safety camera regime, but when it comes to things like the automated issuing of certain infringement notices, again, a pretty important, albeit technocratic step to enable justice to be served more quickly, we do support that, because we support the administration of justice being taken seriously in this crucial area of public life.

We see that, among other things, there is the ability for an enforcement officer to impound a vehicle for 28 days. That would be if a person fails to provide certain information when requested. And while on the face of it, one might say it’s pretty heavy-handed, because it involves a confiscation of property in the absence of a criminal conviction, nevertheless, we think that if a person fails to provide certain information when requested, it’s reasonable to use a tool that’s available to us at our disposal in the toolbox, so to speak, by motivating them to be involved in the process whereby guilt or otherwise can be determined. That’s another example of measures that are within the bill that we think will make things easier for the police and other authorities to do their job, because, as we can all agree, I’m sure, this is an important issue and we want to equip those who perform these duties to the best of their ability.

So with that, so I’ll conclude my relatively short contribution, except only to thank the House again, the Justice Committee again, and say that we do join others in commending the bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a surprise but also a pleasure to be standing and speaking on this bill, the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill. I have not sat on the Justice Committee. Nevertheless, I understand, as the member Chris Penk, who has just resumed his seat, has said, that the Justice Committee have taken through this House the most bills in this term. So I want to acknowledge Vanushi Walters, the chair, and a very apt and able chair she is too; also the former chair Ginny Andersen for her work. I think it also has to be said, absolutely, because it’s not just the chairs or the select committee but the officials that have worked, and I imagine they have worked tirelessly on this work.

This bill is at the second reading. I understand there were 33 interested groups or individuals and eight oral submitters that came before the select committee, and the bill simply seeks to reduce unsafe behaviour on New Zealand roads by increasing the speed and severity of enforcement.

Two matters that I think are particularly useful were discussed. One is vehicle impoundment for failing to provide information. One of the things that hasn’t been said is some of the grounds that don’t necessarily mean that the impoundment sticks or stays, and that is there are some compassionate grounds that mean that the vehicle can be returned. Creditors can also ask to have the car or vehicle released, and the police have a discretion to use that.

Also, in terms of vehicle forfeiture, there is a really clear process as well for ensuring that the financial sale of the property is also now going to be kept by the Crown. I think that that is a very severe message that we send to people who are committing this crime. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Kia orana, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to take a brief call in support of the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill. In doing so, I want to acknowledge the work of the Justice Committee. Mr Penk acknowledged that it’s a hard-working committee under the chair Vanushi Walters, and what they have done is they’ve worked through this after listening to submissions and have come back with some rather sensible and practical solutions to make the bill more workable. One is really around the practical aspect of what defines a registered person—making sure that there’s a broader scope around that—and also allowing the electronic means to be incorporated in terms of not just filing of information, which seems to be fairly common these days, but also in terms of following through on the service of notices when it comes to particular breaches or infringements that might follow.

The interesting thing I note also is that it lengthens the period from 28 days, which seems to be the common theme in a number of calendar events when it comes to criminal proceedings, to that of six months as a period, by which the enforcement officer may take action to impound a motor vehicle. That gives the enforcement agency—more likely than not to be the New Zealand Police, of course—more time to work through processes, to establish identity, and to take appropriate action. The limitation of the 28 days as a time frame is just an indication where it has proved a little bit difficult. So I again congratulate and acknowledge the work of the Justice Committee. I thank the Minister for bringing this to the House and commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, this bill is a result of an announcement that the Government made back on 16 May this year to control a problem that actually has literally run away on the Government, and that is around fleeing drivers and introducing some new powers for police when it comes to those fleeing drivers. So police will now be able to seize and impound vehicles for up to six months if it’s failed to stop. It will also apply if the registered owner of the vehicle fails to provide information of the fleeing driver and impounding is deemed necessary for public safety. Vehicles may also be forfeited upon conviction for a failing-to-stop offence.

The background to the reasoning for this—and National is supporting it, but we feel like it’s come at a very late stage when something could have been done a lot earlier, because data released last year showed that the number of fleeing drivers between December 2020 and December 2021 was 4,846; the same number showed the number of fleeing drivers between November 2021 and November 2022 was 9,499. So it practically doubled. It just goes to show that if there’s inaction with law and order, problems can really start to accelerate—and that’s not meant to be a pun but it certainly has been an accelerating problem. In the same time, the number of unidentified fleeing drivers increased from 2,419 to 6,412; while the number of police proceedings jumped from 3,374 to 3,484—so a very, very small number of police proceedings in relation to what was happening out there on our road and putting the number of people out there in danger. So, for six years now, all offenders needed to do was put their foot down and nobody would chase. The results have been predictable: an increase of 96 percent more fleeing drivers from that December 2020 period that I quoted before.

So Labour’s lack of action on crime, combined with this bill that won’t have a massive overall effect on the wider crime picture, shows that the Government is waving the white flag and giving up on law and order. The Government is now belatedly waking up to the fact that authorities need stronger powers and that offenders should face some real consequences. This bill will help but the real challenge is to change the culture of excuses. The only target that this Government has focused on in the justice sector, until now, is a 30 percent reduction in prison numbers. So this is far too little, far too late. Many people have lost their lives in the interim.

National is supporting this bill today. We just would, again, reiterate the fact that it’s been a very long time—far too long—finding its way into the House to give the police some powers to act on at least one crime that is desperately out of control. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Again, I join the rest of the House in thanking the submitters in getting us to this point and the Minister for bringing this bill, the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill to the House.

This is really important. I think back to the region that I come from and I remember, just before Christmas in 2017, there was a fleeing driver that hit a police officer that was actually just trying to put out some road spikes to try and stop the fleeing driver in the first place. That police constable was actually hit and hurt and had to be flown to Waikato Hospital because he was just trying to do what the right thing was, what the public expected him to do.

Earlier this year, back in January, an innocent woman suffered life-threatening injuries when a fleeing 37-year-old driver crashed into her home as she was eating dinner in Gisborne. Again, off to Waikato Hospital for some surgery to her serious injuries.

We need to crack down on fleeing drivers. Fleeing drivers need to know that it’s not OK. Fleeing drivers need to know that there are serious implications when they run and they hit innocent people, whether it’s police officers in the line of duty or innocent New Zealanders sitting in their kitchen eating their dinner.

It’s not acceptable. This bill will create the ability for police to be able to impound cars for longer, to be able to utilise the mechanism of disqualification of licences. They are being given a set of tools to be able to turn around this awful, awful statistic. The previous member talked about how this is on the rise. It’s unacceptable; no matter which side of the House that you sit on in this place, we all understand the value of being able to give the police the tools to be able to deal with fleeing drivers.

This bill is good for the people that have been affected by fleeing drivers, whether it’s the police officer in Awakeri that day in 2017 or the lovely lady in Gisborne who was sitting down to eat her dinner and the car came crashing through her house. I commend this bill, on their behalf, to the House.

The question is, That the amendments recommended by the Justice Committee by majority be agreed to.

I declare the House in committee for consideration of the bill.

In Committee