Genter Julie Anne: Land Transport Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGenter Julie Anne: Land Transport Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 03 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19241. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green):I rise to speak on the second reading of the Land Transport Amendment Bill which we are very happy to support although we do note that it has taken quite a long time for the Government to finally realise that this is an issue that does need to be dealt with. As has been noted by previous speakers it is unclear why this has taken over 4 years to come before the House. So many lives could have been saved if it had been implemented earlier.There is no question that simply changing the law is not enough to reduce the harm of drink-driving. The single most effective thing we could do to reduce the risk of harm from drink-driving is to actually reduce the need for people to have to drive to and from their sources of entertainment. It is quite an anomaly because in New Zealand as in some other countries we have the very intriguing situation where we require pubs in most towns and cities to provide large off-street car-parks while at the same time hoping that people will not be driving to and from the pub.In fact I am aware of one bar in Christchurch that was required to provide a huge number of off-street car-parks simply to comply with district planning rules. Of course you would hope that most people would not be driving to and from the pub. The off-street car-parks which it had to provide a building for were actually one-third of their overhead. So it is an example of where there are some significant opportunities for New Zealand to move from regulations and transport planning that assume that every single trip will be made by car to giving people better choices. Having better public transport services in our towns and cities and having pubs within walking distance of where people live and work are actually an opportunity to reduce the risk of motor vehicle accidents as well as to reduce the cost of infrastructure.So we are happy to see that finally the National Government listened to the evidence and the research and has taken action on something that will save a significant number of lives on the road. We do believe that it could have an even more ambitious target for reducing road deaths and road injuries. There are many other comparable jurisdictions that have a vision of a zero road toll. I think it is about time that New Zealand started to adopt that because when we aim for a zero road toll and zero harm from our transportation we will start implementing the sorts of policies that will get us there. At the moment the National Government is pursuing a very status quo approach to transport planning and funding which will not do much to reduce the cost of transport and certainly will not reduce to any significant extent the injuries and deaths that happen on the road because ultimately we are still building everything around the idea that everyone has to drive everywhere whether that is to the pub or not.I did not follow this bill through the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee process but my colleague Kevin Hague did and he did mention that there were some aspects of the bill that he was disappointed that the select committee did not take up. I think we still probably have some concerns with the new procedures for dealing with blood specimens and whether or not there is any infringement on the rights of the defendant someone who is being prosecuted to have access to the sorts of—it is about how the evidence is presented in court and what evidence is available. Obviously there was a loophole in the Act regarding drivers who cannot give blood samples and there have been times when that allowed the prosecution of a driver for refusing to permit a blood specimen to be taken. We still have some concerns about the way that that was introduced and dealt with. But ultimately we do like seeing this small step on the road to progress in reducing the harm from alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents. We would also like to see an even more ambitious target for road safety and reduction of harm. Thank you.