Cosgrove Clayton: Land Transport (Street and Illegal Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Cosgrove Clayton: Land Transport (Street and Illegal Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4551] 
CLAYTON COSGROVE (NZ Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 It is with great pleasure that I rise to support the bill. As I have said on a number of occasions this is one of those rare occasions in Parliament when to some extent politics—apart from parts of the previous speech—have been put aside. As MPs we have done what the country wants us to do and that is forget about who thought of the idea forget about which party thought of the idea put all the politics the rhetoric and the showmanship aside and do what is right. 
I start my speech today by acknowledging in fairness the way Opposition parties and Government colleagues—apart from the Greens—have assisted in facilitating this bill. I think it is right that we acknowledge parties because we have done what people wanted us to do which is to get on with the job. Today we are putting in place a measure that has overwhelming community support. In that regard I also want to acknowledge United Future. The truth is that United Future also assisted in a major way in facilitating the promotion of this bill. 
I refer to Mr Ryall’s comments. He is a bit like a general. He arrives at the battle after the war is won and bayonets a few wounded. I remind Mr Ryall that his party had 9 years in Government. I am no genius and I acknowledge that. I do not think of all the good ideas—no one person does—this problem has been around for many years. I just remind Opposition members that they were in Government for almost a decade and could have produced a member’s bill or a Government bill to fix this problem. Unfortunate though it is I think the real reason that this bill has been promoted the way it has is that Parliament is attempting to save some lives. 
In my city of Christchurch on the weekend—apart from the chaos which is unacceptable and the beer bottle through the back window of a police car the night I was out—we had the tragic death of a young man but God willing hopefully the three other occupants of the car will survive. A large number of people—brothers and sisters wives husbands and loved ones—have been killed in this country as a result of this activity. When I started campaigning on this issue 3 years ago—and this is no disrespect to the fourth estate upstairs—it was considered to be a bit of a giggle. I had the odd media commentator say to me: “Oh you’re just a killjoy. What are you doing this for? It’s been around for years. It’s a bit of a giggle.” That stopped the day two young people were killed in Motueka through drag racing. Suddenly someone in the fourth estate realised this was not a stunt; this was not a bit of a politicking; this was about saving lives. 
I want to thank a couple of people. A lot of the credit goes to a uniformed police officer in my patch Sergeant Geoff Kenna. I mention him at the introduction of this speech because Sergeant Kenna head of the North Canterbury highway patrol went to New South Wales found the legislation brought it back thought it was a good idea and flicked it to myself and the Minister of Police. That was the germ of the idea that has brought us here today. I want to take the opportunity to thank Sergeant Kenna and his team in Christchurch and around the country for what he and they did to create this idea. I want to thank Hugh Hannah a senior lawyer with the Ministry of Transport who provided a lot of assistance in the drafting of this legislation together with Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald and his police officials and also Martin Gallagher. I launched this bill with Russ Rimmington the then Mayor of Hamilton in Mr Gallagher’s electorate because he had a huge problem with this activity and still does. 
I also thank Sir Barry Curtis. Probably the catalyst for getting the bill into the House and to a select committee was the shooting in Manukau City where groups of these lunatics shot firearms at each other. That was a sad day for Auckland. Every time we have had a debate about this bill another local authority has given myself or colleagues on either side of the House a call and said: “We have a problem here as well.” The objective of this bill is about saving lives. It is about giving back to our communities their roadways and properties—releasing them from the siege they are under through this lunacy. 
As I have said the origins of this bill are to be found in New South Wales where the legislation has been effective. I travelled there and I know that members of the select committee travelled there also and talked with senior New South Wales police officers. The legislation there has knocked the problem on the head. The bill however will not be a panacea; it will not solve everything. We have laws on murder but tragically we still have murders and killings in this country. But I think the bill will go some way to alleviating the hoon problem. What is the difference between this activity now and 20 years ago? When our dads or mums or whoever had a beer and went out and did a donut on the footy field they were not driving souped-up high-performance motor vehicles; they were not in numbers of 200 or 300; they did not assault people and they did not engage in property damage. Sure there were probably a number of deaths—more related to alcohol I would say—but the carnage in which young people are being killed was not as frequent as we have today. 
To my Green colleague across the aisle I say that when he is talking about human rights I will be amongst the Green Party members and others in this House who will stand up for the human and civil rights of any community. But the innocent people who are killed and the innocent people who are victims also have civil rights. Their families also have civil rights. Every sister brother mum or dad who has had somebody killed or injured as a result of this activity also has civil rights. Every person who has been done over or whose property has been done over or who has been assaulted also has civil rights. Where I part company with my Green colleague is that he never seems to speak about the civil rights of the victims and the responsibilities of the offenders. He never completes the circle of the argument. That is where I draw the line with him. 
Last night I opened an art exhibition by Senior Sergeant John Robinson. My colleague Ron Mark attended as well. Senior Sergeant Robinson is a highway patrol member in Rangiora who has spent many hours taking photographs of the white crosses we see on our roadways all around this country. There are 450 of them in his exhibition. I want to pay tribute to him and all the uniformed folk because as I said last night they are the people who literally sometimes have to go and pick up the pieces—in some respects grotesquely the body parts. They are the people who have to knock on the door of a mum or dad a wife or husband and say: “ I have some bad news.” I pay tribute to those officers. 
The clear objective of this bill is to lessen that work but it is only one part of the whole road safety issue. It will not be a panacea as I have said but as New South Wales police told me the thing that will strike fear into the heart of a hoon the irresponsible driver is when the tow truck rolls up the car is hooked on the back and rolled away. The big flash souped-up $20000 $30000 and in one case $80000 vehicle—the prized possession of the hoon—goes. I believe that will have an impact. All the advice we have from the Ministry of Transport police and the officials is that that will have an impact and the international evidence agrees with that. 
The clear message to these people is that if they are going to act irresponsibly on our roads where they endanger the lives of themselves and other people then they do not have the right to a motor vehicle. I will be the first person to put up my hand and advocate more burnout pads and resources for these people—if they act legitimately. Football players do not play football on State Highway 1; they join a club. If these drivers join a club and act lawfully I will put up my hand—as will other colleagues—and advocate facilities for them. But I am not having my community and other communities around New Zealand stood over by these people. We saw it on the news on Saturday night: traffic through the Lyttelton tunnel in Christchurch was brought to a standstill. I am not having communities stood over and placed under siege by these people. The clear message to the hoon is: “Stop the activity while you have got a car to stop with.” 
I conclude by again thanking our United Future colleagues and the National Party New Zealand First and other parties in the House that have supported this bill. I make a plea to my Green colleague that when he stands to speak he will remember the 450 crosses on the roads down my way and the young people who have been killed. He is the youth spokesperson for the Green Party so he should also stand and be an advocate for the mothers fathers brothers and sisters of the young people who have been killed. I commend the bill to the House. It is a good bill.