Wagner Nicky: Address in Reply 
Wagner Nicky: Address in Reply 
[Volume:652;Page:1209] 
NICKY WAGNER (National) 
: 
 Last November it is true the public voted for National. They voted for a new fresh approach to government. They voted for a safer country. They voted for more stimuli to control the economic situation that is affecting the world. 
Since November we have been very busy. We have been busy passing law and order legislation and developing an economic stimulus package that will blunt the effects of the world economic downturn. Last week we introduced the small-business stimulus package which will help New Zealanders to survive that global meltdown and will support the small businesses that deliver such value to our economy. And today we introduced a further economic stimulus package that fast tracked spending on schools and investment in State houses and roading infrastructure. 
The people of Christchurch are absolutely delighted that National is fast tracking the Christchurch southern motorway. It has been a long long wait for that motorway. The people of Christchurch are also delighted that three of our schools will be upgraded as will many of our State houses. National is determined that we will be focusing on the things that matter most for New Zealanders. 
But on a smaller scale one of the things that matter most to Christchurch people—and indeed to people across the country—is to deal quickly and efficiently with the boy-racer problem that is so endemic in New Zealand. It is a multifaceted problem. It has three major elements: the noise the speed and dangerous driving and the unlawful assembly and criminally driven pack behaviour. All three issues have to be dealt with specifically and effectively. 
Let us take noise first. Noise underpins the whole street hoon culture. Noise is the boy racer’s badge of honour. It is the noise that excites it is the noise that intimidates it is the noise that disrupts families and businesses night after night after night and it is the noise that is giving Christchurch such a bad name both locally and internationally. Those huge chrome-plated exhaust systems are just “look at me” devices. They serve no purpose except to advertise the presence of street hoons and to intimidate and disrupt the lives of ordinary citizens. 
New Zealand’s noise legislation is out of date and out of sync with the rest of the world and the recent changes made under Labour have only made it worse. Do members know that any car that has been in New Zealand since before June last year now no longer needs to have an exhaust system that reduces engine noise or even controls the noise level so that it is less than or similar that of to the original exhaust system? Now thanks to Labour a boy racer or a girl racer can as of right add a chrome-plated monster tailpipe to any car and quite legally increase the noise level up to 95 decibels. I would just like to inform the House what 95 decibels sounds like. It is the level of noise that we cringe from when we are standing half a metre away from a four-stroke motor mower operating at full speed. Can members imagine that? A four-stroke motor mower at full speed half a metre away is 95 decibels. And now thanks to Labour it is quite legal for all cars that have been in New Zealand since before June last year to have that noise coming from them. No wonder the people of Christchurch and all across the country have had enough of Labour’s slack noise laws! 
The second issue when it comes to boy racing is speeding and dangerous driving. We all know that cars are lethal weapons in the wrong hands. Street racing and dangerous driving must be curbed. Too many lives have been lost; too many people have been injured. Several families in the electorate where I live have suffered the loss of a family member to street-hoon crashes and there is one family whose mother is permanently and tragically disabled both mentally and physically and is in a wheelchair. When we use the roads we all accept that there is some element of danger and that some crashes are unavoidable but there is no place for deliberately dangerous driving senseless speed and out-of-control racing. The Minister of Transport the Hon Steven Joyce has promised a full review of road safety which will consider all our existing legislation and address these issues. 
The final and an increasingly frightening aspect of street hoons is their unlawful assembly and criminal pack behaviour. Noisy abusive and dangerous pack behaviour has been gradually escalating around Christchurch City and in cities and towns throughout the country. On Friday 31 January Sergeant Nigel Armstrong received a call for help from a security guard who was locking up for the night at the A and P grounds on the outskirts of Christchurch. He called the police because he was being pelted with bottles by a group of boy racers and he feared for his safety. Responding immediately to his call Sergeant Armstrong arrived in his patrol car to be ambushed by a group of up to 300 boy racers who attacked him with bottles and even shot at him with an air rifle. I saw that car myself. It had smashed windows and I could see where the bullets were around the driver’s window. Those people were aiming at Sergeant Armstrong. Can I remind the House that it was an air rifle that killed Sergeant Don Wilkinson in Auckland last September. It was only because Sergeant Armstrong was an experienced and capable police officer that nobody was killed. The group had cordoned off one lane of the street. He had to drive around the people weaving in and out of young people and their cars to get out at the other end. The thing that terrifies me is what would have happened if he had run over somebody or if he had been caught himself. I do not believe those young people had gone out there thinking that they were going to kill a police officer that night but that is what might have happened with that pack behaviour. 
This incident has brought the whole boy-racer issue and the hoon behaviour to a head. The people of Christchurch are not prepared to accept this type of behaviour and the people of New Zealand are not prepared to accept this type of behaviour; nor is the National Government. The New Zealand Police need new legislative tools to manage the three aspects of street-hoon boy-racer behaviour. They need new laws to deal with the noise they need to deal with the speed and dangerous driving and they must be able to manage the unlawful assembly of criminal packs. National will provide those tools.