Bennett David: Land Transport Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
Bennett David: Land Transport Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12390] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 The National Party has no problem at all in supporting this Land Transport Amendment Bill (No 4). It brings about two pieces of law reform that as Maurice said we had been thinking about for some time. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will use the member’s full name. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: As Maurice Williamson said he considered this matter during his time as a Minister. I guess we could even take a leaf out of New Zealand First’s book and say it is something we have long advocated and finally it has been presented to the House. 
The bill is one that I do not believe the public will have any problem with either. I think there will be public support for it. In general people do perceive there is an issue here. They perceive there is an issue relating to the drinking of alcohol and the taking of drugs and then driving and that there is a need for legislation to be consistent between them. As the Minister alluded to it is probably a matter of having the technological ability to develop a testing system and regime that accommodates a drug component. That is still something that will be quite difficult to achieve because there is no test to immediately identify whether somebody is on drugs. The test that is being employed is in some cases a very rudimentary test that we used to use for alcohol-related impairment many years ago. Basically it is as somebody mentioned earlier “walking the line”. It is getting people to walk along a line in order to see whether there are any obvious impairments in their physical ability. It is asking them to touch their nose and turn round in order to see whether they have the coordination and ability to operate on certain angles; it is to see whether they have that balance of their human nature which could I guess be impaired by drugs. The test is not as sophisticated as we would probably like it to be and I think we will see this legislation change over time as more sophisticated tests are developed that will actually determine what level of drug taking is sufficient to impair a driver and what the timing is of that drug-induced impairment. 
An issue within the legislation and with the way we draw up legislation in respect of drug laws is how we actually test as those substances have the ability to stay in the body for some period of time after the actual impairment. It is an issue we see on the sports field for example. Many sportspeople get caught out in drug tests as having for example marijuana in their system even though they may have taken it some time before being tested. It may be just the residual effects of the drug that have stayed in their system yet they get pinged for it even though their ability to perform on the field for example is not affected. So it is a developing area. We have made a start I guess in this legislation by identifying that it is something we want to codify and have in law now that the ability is there to at least make a start in preparing some kind of testing regime. 
The heart of the testing regime will necessarily be the blood test. With the inability to test with some degree of efficiency at the roadside the blood test will become the major testing vehicle. I imagine that most people who are brought to the police’s eye under this legislation will deny having taken drugs and will therefore seek a blood test. That may well incur time and commitment on the part of the police in the initial years as this legislation goes forward until we eventually get a better testing regime. 
The National Party is very supportive of this legislation. The public have waited for a long time to see this happen and there is no doubt their mood is to support this testing regime. The devil will be in the detail as always but the conceptual basis of testing somebody for drug-related impairment will I think find support through most parties in this House. I believe that even those who may not support it will find over time as technology develops that they change their minds because the tests will be able to determine the level of impairment present at the time of a person’s being picked up by the police. 
The other issue that this legislation talks about is the registration of motor vehicles. The bill sets up a stricter regime on the information flow to people with regard to the register of motor vehicles. We have heard examples of people accessing information to a level of detail that one would not necessarily expect could be accessed easily. With the amount of information that is out there in society people want to see that they have certain protection of their privacy. We have seen over the last decade or so the introduction of privacy laws and through a lot of different pieces of legislation now the privacy of the individual is seen as paramount. If we look at the way we deal with our Government departments for example in heath care in the beneficiary status of somebody or in general within many Government departments we see that the privacy of an individual is something we cherish and want to retain. I guess this legislation is the next step towards the motor vehicle register becoming one of the more practical registers of public information in terms of seeing that that privacy element is retained. So in that regard this step is really just part of the progression towards the privacy of personal and individual information that has been ongoing for a number of years. 
As long as we ensure there are balances this legislation should be sufficient not only to retain privacy but also to allow people to carry on business as one would expect in this industry. We need to work through the detail to make sure there is still credible access to information for industries and people who have a reasonable and proven need for it. I believe that people will come to the select committee and make submissions on the bill. They will make their case and say that there is a situation where information on the register needs to be found out. Primarily those submissions will be business-related or individual-related with regard to motor vehicles. It is something we can accept and we can find a balance between the privacy of the individual and the need for some consistency in business so that people can carry on their business with that information flow. Overall the two issues that this legislation deals with are ones we support. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.