Brownlee Gerry; O'Connor GregSPECIAL DEBATESPetitions Committee Report—Make mobility parking enforceable on all public-use property and increase finesSPEAKER: Members we come now to the debate on the petition of Claire Dale to make mobility parking enforceable on all public-use property and increase fines. I call on the chairperson of the Petitions Committee to move that the House takes note of this report but I would say that this is a tight debate related entirely to the matters canvassed in the petition.GREG O'CONNOR (Chairperson of the Petitions Committee): Thank you Mr Speaker. As the chairman of the very hard-working and omnipotent Petitions Committee it gives me great pleasure to be here today to speak on this petition. Now this is a petition that the work was done by I understand an equally hard-working and omnipotent committee in the last Parliament. Having done the work the mahi they recommended that we have this debate such was the interest in the issues raised.Now the petition was presented to the House on 28 February 2022 requesting that the House of Representatives change the law to substantially increase fines nationally for misusing any mobility parking spaces including on privately owned land that is used publicly and urged the Government to run an education campaign to desist able-bodied people from misusing mobility parking spaces for public use.Ms Claire Dale the petitioner is concerned about able-bodied people parking in mobility parking spaces. I have to say I think many of us have probably been guilty of driving around looking for a park and tantalisingly seeing a mobility park but 99 percent of us have the common decency and understanding of the issues faced by those of the disability community and don't park in them. But there are always those in our community who think that firstly they can get away with it or they think that the law doesn't apply to them or are just lazy and do park in those car parks—and that for members of the disability community is extremely frustrating.The committee brought together as the committee does the New Zealand Police the Ministry of Transport and Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People with the petitioner to discuss the issues. The extent of the problem: the disability survey of 2013 found 24 percent of New Zealanders identify as disabled and 64 percent of disabled adults have a physical impairment. Whaikaha is aware of instances where mobility parking spaces have been misused but the rules were not enforced. Surveys undertaken by CCS Disability Action indicate that although there had been a decrease in the number of vehicles parking in mobility parks without displaying a permit few illegally parked cars are ticketed. The enforcement rate is particularly low for mobility parks located on private property. Of course many of those mobility parks on private property are in supermarket and shopping centre car parks.The legal framework around such things the Building Act 2004 does not require a specific portion of car parks to be set aside as mobility parks; however section 119 of that Act provides NZS 4121 designed for access and mobility. The standard requires at least one mobility park for one to 20 parks two mobility parks for 21 to 50 parks and one additional mobility park for each additional 50 parks. Under clause 6.4(1A) of the Land Transport (Road User) Rule it is an offence to stop stand or park a vehicle in any parking area reserved for disabled people unless the driver or a passenger is disabled and displays a disabled parking permit. Currently the infringement fee is a mere $150.Also the petitioner brought to the committee's attention the United Nations convention and also the New Zealand Disability Strategy which also addressed the issue. The committee having heard that evidence then subsequently brought back the follow-up submissions from the Government agencies after having asked them to head away and actually look at this issue together rather than separately. They came back with a number of recommendations and just this week the committee has received a report from the Government on the progress of those recommendations.Now my time is coming to an end but I'm confident my fellow speakers will go through the rest of the contents of this. So a very real issue that will affect us all eventually. Thank you Mr Speaker.