Brown Peter: Land Transport Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Brown Peter: Land Transport Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:21366] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 I want to speak about the two amendments put forward by National Party members. 
The first is in the name of Pansy Wong. It seems to me to make quite a degree of sense. She states: “Driving instructors who teach driving for hire or reward must display the I endorsement in a visible manner during driving courses.” I would have thought that was a pretty sound sort of requirement in legislation—that a driving instructor displays the endorsement in a visible manner so that when one gets in the instructor’s car one knows that he or she is the genuine article so to speak. The amendment goes on: “Driving instructors who teach driving for hire or reward with an I endorsement must be New Zealand citizens or permanent residents.” I cannot read her last words to be honest but that requirement too makes sense. Should our driving instructors not have learnt their trade in this country? 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: It seems sensible. 
PETER BROWN 
: It seems quite sensible to me and it seems to be an oversight that the legislation does not recognise this sort of thing. So I think I can say that New Zealand First will support Pansy Wong’s amendment. We believe that driving instructors should advertise who they are how they are qualified etc. and we believe that they should have learnt their trade in this country and be fully au fait with our rules. Some of our rules are slightly different from rules elsewhere. One example is the right-hand turn rule which came in 20-odd years ago; I am sure it was devised by panel beaters! I thought the Hon Mark Gosche was going to look at that rule a year or so back with a view to amending it because in some areas it causes a lot of confusion. I think it is important that driving instructors are permanent residents or New Zealand citizens. We will support that. 
The Hon Maurice Williamson has put forward another amendment that we believe has quite a lot of merit. Its purpose is to combine in relation to appendix 2 of the commentary vehicles with a power output of less than 300 watts and vehicles with a power output of between 300 watts and 600 watts. The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee has just looked at this matter pretty carefully. I thought we did a pretty darn good job on it but Maurice Williamson made some valid points a few moments ago. He pointed out that a vehicle with a power output of between 300 watts and 600 watts may be determined by the director not to be a motor vehicle. That seems to add possibly an awful lot of unnecessary bureaucracy on to the director. There is a little picture of the type of vehicle; it helps us on this side of the House immensely. 
Phil Heatley 
: Ha ha! 
PETER BROWN 
: The member laughs but it does make things very clear. They are very straightforward-looking vehicles and all the other requirements—driver requirements and vehicle requirements—have to be adhered to. So we think the Hon Maurice Williamson on this occasion has got it spot on and we will support the amendment in his name. 
On the issue just raised by Larry Baldock I wonder whether he is actually serious. Is the member suggesting that it will be compulsory for a fellow to go home after doing his 8 hours and have a 5-hour sleep? For all we know he could go and play football. We need to have some rules and regulations governing driving on a commercial basis for income. I think the bill pretty well has it right. I accept the anomaly—I myself am aware of it—that a truck-driver after driving a truck for 11 hours can then go and drive his car from here to the other end of New Zealand if he so wishes. That is a loophole that we may have to look at in the fullness of time. But when it comes to commercial driving it is only right and proper to have some restrictions. 
I think this bill goes a long way towards addressing some of the concerns and certainly the concerns around logbooks. Some drivers and company managers have told me how drivers have been fined excessively for very minor logbook offences. This bill takes care of that. 
The question was put that the following amendment in the name of Pansy Wong to Part 2 be agreed to: 
to insert the following new clause 10A: 
10ANew Section 26A inserted 
26ADisplay 
(1)driving instructors who teach driving for hire or reward must display “I” endorsement in a visible manner during driving courses. 
(2)driving instructors who teach driving for hire or reward with “I” endorsement must be New Zealand citizens or permanent resident visa holders.