Bridges Simon: Land Transport (Speed Limits Validation and Other Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBridges Simon: Land Transport (Speed Limits Validation and Other Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5133. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Transport):I move That the Land Transport (Speed Limits Validation and Other Matters) Bill be now read a first time. This bill clarifies the power of local councils and other road-controlling authorities such as the New Zealand Transport Agency to set speed limits through their by-laws. The bill corrects some technical legal issues in the powers available to make some speed limit by-laws and the review process for local government by-laws. This bill ensures that these by-laws and the speed limits made under them remain valid and therefore enforceable. The ability to set speed limits and enforce them is essential to public safety. Crashes on New Zealand roads claim lives cause injuries and devastate families and communities. Councils and other road-controlling authorities were always meant to have powers to set speed limit by-laws. This bill makes these requirements clear.Recent information has suggested that some road-controlling authorities may have made speed limit by-laws under powers that may not have been available to them or have omitted to comply fully with their bylaw-making powers conferred by local government Acts by not reviewing speed limit by-laws within the required time. In the interests of removing doubt and providing clarity this bill validates all speed limit by-laws and confirms they were made correctly under appropriate legislation—either local government or land transport legislation. Although this bill addresses a potential problem with some speed limits set as far back as 2004 it is an urgent matter. Simply put we cannot run the risk that some speed limits might be invalid while others are not. Passing this bill under urgency will prevent anyone from taking advantage of the speed limit validity question.The bill will make minor amendments to the Land Transport Act 1998 removing any doubt that road-controlling authorities can make speed limit by-laws under land transport legislation. This bill does not impact on speed limit by-laws made by airport authorities or Ministers of the Crown under legislation specific to them. Part 1 of the bill sets out what by-laws are covered by this amendment. Part 2 of the bill validates any by-laws and the speed limits made under them and the enforcement actions taken in relation to them.The bill also continues existing procedural requirements for certain by-law makers such as airport authorities which are subject to separate legislation concerning their bylaw-making process. The bill also deems existing by-laws to have been made under the Land Transport Act 1998. This will mean those by-laws originally made under local government legislation cease to be Local Government Act by-laws and will not be subject to the review requirements in the Local Government Act 2002.The bill by validating speed limit by-laws is retrospective. Retrospective legislation is rare but in this case I believe it is necessary. I have inquired as to what other options exist to correct these matters. I can advise the House that there are no valid options. Although road-controlling authorities could make new speed limit by-laws this would take some months to complete—a period during which many roads could have no valid speed limits other than 100 kilometres per hour. This creates clearly a public safety risk. I would not want police to be unable to enforce anything other than a 100 kilometres per hour speed limit on our local streets. In addition a road-controlling authority could not validate a previous by-law. This creates uncertainty as to the legality of enforcement actions. Therefore we must move swiftly to protect public safety and provide certainty in this matter.This bill makes it clear that local councils will continue to be responsible for local decisions about speed limits which should reflect consultation and discussions with local communities. Local councils play an important role in road safety and are expected to work closely with other agencies such as Police and the New Zealand Transport Agency. Setting by-laws is therefore a function of local councils.We need to move swiftly to eliminate confusion. This bill makes it clear that these by-laws were as generally understood and were intended to be valid at all times and that they remain so. No matter what causes a crash speed directly affects the force of impact and sometimes of course whether there is any impact at all. This means we cannot tolerate any ambiguity or uncertainty in the validity of speed limits. I commend this bill to the House.