Hughes Darren: Land Transport Amendment Bill (No 4) — Referral of S.O.P. 10 to Transport and Industrial Relations Committee 
Hughes Darren: Land Transport Amendment Bill (No 4) — Referral of S.O.P. 10 to Transport and Industrial Relations Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2173] 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Labour) 
: 
 The Labour Opposition will be supporting Supplementary Order Paper 10 in the name of the Hon Steven Joyce the Minister of Transport which is an amendment to the Land Transport Amendment Bill (No 4). I have had a discussion with the Minister to make sure that there is nothing sneaky in the Supplementary Order Paper. The briefing information we have received about him says that it was a good decision to seek that assurance but he did say that it was of a technical nature only and his speech has outlined why. Obviously the Opposition will be in support of this Supplementary Order Paper being referred to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. 
 It is not in the interest of any member for the provisions to lapse on 1 July. The consequences of that other than being annoying would be very disruptive to the transport sector to ordinary motorists and to everybody who would be affected. 
The Land Transport Amendment Bill (No 4) is before the select committee at the moment. It was introduced by my colleague the Hon Annette King when she was Minister of Transport. It covers a number of areas that the House has long wanted to give consideration to so I am very pleased that the Minister is not seeking to have this Supplementary Order Paper considered in such a rushed fashion that the bill itself does not get proper consideration. I think the issue in the bill that the Supplementary Order Paper refers to—drug testing of drivers—is something that Parliament needs to consider very carefully and I know that the select committee is doing that. 
Although we could have a major procedural battle about whether the Supplementary Order Paper is within the scope of the bill and we could be difficult and raise things like that that is not the nature of this Opposition. The nature of this Opposition as our leader the Hon Phil Goff said is that where the Government comes up with a good idea we want to support it. We want to see that action is taken on such a measure. 
But where the Government makes terrible mistakes of course we want to point them out as vigorously as we can. In fact in the very portfolio we are debating with regard to this Supplementary Order Paper the transport portfolio we have seen some big disasters. We have parted company with the Minister and his decision to rip off the people of Auckland with only half a plan for transport and then to rip off all the people of New Zealand by charging them 6c a litre of petrol to pay for it. Those are areas of difference that we have with the Minister and we will have to argue those quite strongly. 
But it is good to have an example where we can unite with the Minister even if it is only on an administrative matter. So far his ability to reach out across the political divide extends only to matters of administration but I believe that the bridge that the Minister has tried to build will have much more substance as time goes on. 
One of the effects of the substantive bill before the committee is a walk-the-line test with regard to drug testing and those safety issues are covered by the Supplementary Order Paper that the Minister has referred to. We in the Labour Opposition would like to know whether that test would be extended to people who use the bicycle lane that is now to be the saviour of the New Zealand economy. We want to make sure that this Supplementary Order Paper is not focused on just a narrow transport area. We have heard from the Minister that he seeks to be a visionary in this portfolio. I hope the bicycle lane can be counted among the matters referred to by the House this afternoon. I think it would be a missed opportunity for our country if that was not able to happen knowing how transformative that project is going to be for the country. 
Obviously most of these matters are very technical. They should not be matters of division and it is important that the House acts on them before 1 July. So Labour will be supporting the referral of this Supplementary Order Paper to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and we hope that it can report it back with the substantive matters raised in the bill itself so that the legislation can be passed in due time. 
I say to the Minister that while we are in a facilitative mode it might be useful if he briefed the Hon Gerry Brownlee. Although the Minister himself has worked very diligently in order to put forward this Supplementary Order Paper and he has found a way to give effect to the policy it would be such a tragedy if he gave up his interest in it after the vote today and thought his work was done. If he relies on the Leader of the House to get the bill back in time before 30 June it could be that some more substantial action would be required by Parliament. Although on one occasion we are prepared to cooperate I think two occasions would be pushing the bipartisan hand of friendship just a little too far with regard to Mr Brownlee. I say to the Minister that I hope he will take the opportunity to make sure that all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed on this particular matter. 
We will support this motion. I know that one of my colleagues wants to explore some of the other areas in the Supplementary Order Paper a little further than I have had the chance to do. It is certainly something we want to see progress through the House this afternoon so that it can go off to the select committee to make sure that the consequential effects of our not doing that are not brought to bear on the good people of this country.