Guy Nathan: Land Transport Amendment Bill (No 4) — Third Reading 
Guy Nathan: Land Transport Amendment Bill (No 4) — Third Reading 
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Hon NATHAN GUY (Associate Minister of Transport) 
: 
 It is great to rise and take a call on the Land Transport Amendment Bill (No 4). It is a bill that I am very supportive of. I need to acknowledge from the outset the work on the bill that was done by the Labour Opposition. The Hon Trevor Mallard proposed some amendments that we were able to incorporate with the Government’s thoughts during the Committee of the whole House stage. Now we have a very robust bill that will endeavour I believe to make motorists safer in their communities. It will stamp down on drivers who are drugged and it will give the police more powers to act on those drugged drivers. 
I will make a few introductory comments about this bill and then I will conclude by making a few comments around the motor vehicles register which the previous speaker Chris Hipkins alluded to. This bill aims to reduce the road safety risk created by persons who commit the offence of driving while impaired with the evidence of drugs in their bloodstream. It will give the police the ability to perform the impairment test. I need to talk a little bit about the impairment test because it will be made compulsory under this regime. It will involve instances when a police officer stops a driver and suspects that he or she is driving under the influence of drugs. Drivers will have to walk and turn—this is outside the vehicle—they will have to be able to stand on one leg and they will have to undergo a test that determines the size of their pupils as well as their reaction to light. That measure is very important. It will enable police to have greater powers to crack down on drivers who choose to drive under the influence of drugs. 
The other important thing that this bill does is determine that from time to time some people are on drugs that have been administered by a specialist or a general practitioner. This bill allows those people some relief from prosecution. If they have medicine in accordance with a current prescription from the manufacturer they will be allowed to have that medicine. One example could be someone in hospital who needs morphine. The schedule covers all drugs; this point is very important. I have had a briefing from the police and if we think about it we see that we have a long established history of how we can test for alcohol but we do not have such a test for drugs because drugs in today’s society are always evolving. Whether it is cocaine heroin cannabis or LSD all of those particular drugs are ongoing and evolving. That is an important thing to note. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I don’t think cocaine and heroin are evolving. They evolved a long time ago. 
Hon NATHAN GUY 
: They evolved a long time ago but as Mr Mallard knows from getting around his electorate new drugs are coming into society. I think we need to be aware of that. 
The other important point I make in wrapping up is to make some comments around the motor vehicles register. From time to time an incident might occur on the road where a vehicle cuts someone off the driver of the vehicle that was hit jots down the registration plate number of the vehicle that hit it and then that driver looks up the owner of that vehicle. For a small fee anyone can do that by going into a post shop. We need to ensure that that information is protected. It is my understanding that the information relates to over 2 million vehicles. Of course there are people who choose to use the register as a marketing ploy. They get out there and bombard through direct-marketing all those people who have a vehicle licensed through this mechanism. We need to be very very mindful of that. 
The other significant point is that from time to time a part of a vehicle might need to be recalled. That happened to my vehicle recently. I got a note from the Ford motor company saying that I had to go in and have something taken off the vehicle and replaced. Under this bill motor vehicle companies will still be allowed to send mail directly to people who purchased a vehicle from them. It will also allow the police the Ministry of Justice the Customs Service the Ministry of Fisheries and the like—agencies that are involved in law enforcement—to access the register. 
In summary this is a good bill. There is a great deal of support across the House for it. I need to acknowledge the work done by the officials and the good work done in the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee by the chair David Bennett and his good team. I commend this bill to the House.