Beaumont Carol: Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Beaumont Carol: Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:658;Page:7234] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 Like others who have risen to speak on the third reading of the Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill I would like to acknowledge that illegal street racing is a real problem and something we need to address. Like many others on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee I was very moved by some of the submissions we heard on the bill and particularly by some of the submissions made in Christchurch. People’s lives were seriously affected by their inability to sleep at night. Not being able to sleep on an ongoing basis is a serious issue. In some cases people were not able to use certain parts of their houses or their businesses were being affected. Ms Blue said that in some cases people had to put up with menacing and intimidating behaviour. We had a situation where a person actually chose not to submit on the bill because of being scared of the consequences of doing so. In the end the Hon Lianne Dalziel submitted in that person’s place. Labour recognises the seriousness of the problem and we will support and we are supporting any genuine effort to deal with the issue of illegal street racing and the antisocial behaviour that goes with it. 
The chair of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee David Bennett mentioned earlier that this is the best that we can do. I am afraid I do not agree with that. I think genuine efforts had been made by the previous Government and I would like to acknowledge the work of my colleague Clayton Cosgrove in that regard particularly and other Christchurch MPs. I think the Government is trying to progress those efforts and take them a step further but this is not the best we can do; there is a lot of window dressing in this bill and its companion bill and there are some areas of concern. 
But before I go into those areas like others let me acknowledge all of the people who made submissions on the bill—and there were a significant numbers of submissions. Likewise I would like to acknowledge the officials. They worked very hard and a lot of particularly interesting questions were thrown their way which they attempted to respond to and often responded to very clearly. We were under quite a lot of time pressure which was unfortunate; the consequences of that are that some areas are not as clear as they might be. 
The bill aims to disrupt and deter illegal street racing and related activities such as cruising by enhancing the powers of road controlling authorities to create by-laws in relation to such activities and to provide enforcement officers with more powers to tackle illegal street racing. The elements that are part of that are first of all the issue of cruising which has been well canvassed tonight. The definition of “cruising” causes Labour members some concern. We are not sure that the wording in place will do the job. A change was made by the select committee. The definition stated that cruising refers to the act of “driving repeatedly over the same section of a road” to draw attention to the power or sound of the motor vehicle or in order to create a convoy that impedes traffic flow. But now the definition talks about “driving repeatedly in the same direction over the same section of a road” thereby excluding going backwards and forwards over the same section of a road. That is a concern because the noise will be the same either way. 
Likewise I am concerned about the issue of by-laws. Although I can see the logic that by-laws enable local authorities to make specific and relevant changes in their areas all of the local authorities—certainly all the ones I can recall—did not want that power. That is a very interesting point and one we did not come to terms with. They were saying that they did not think by-laws would be the right tool. They thought there should be legislation yet we have gone ahead and put in place by-law provisions. It remains to be seen whether they will be effective. 
My point earlier was that after listening to all of the submissions I think there is no easy answer to this problem and the real issues are quite significant ones that require a range of responses. Overwhelmingly the significant issue is noise—it almost goes without saying. The problem with illegal street racing is the noise it creates and the disruption it causes. That is the biggest problem. The second and third problems are road safety issues arising from the actions of those illegal street racers and their antisocial behaviour which is often fuelled by alcohol. 
The terminology of “cruising” and the use of by-laws to stop cruising are effectively a proxy; a proxy to try to stop the cars from going round and round if you like so the noise will not be there the road safety issues will not be there and the antisocial behaviour will not be there. In theory it is possible to imagine a situation where a car or several cars drive round and round some of the places we are talking about without causing trouble without creating unnecessary noise without creating road safety problems and without antisocial behaviour. So it is not the actual cruising that is the problem; it is the things that go with it and I do not think that we have effectively tackled those questions. 
We decided the decibel issue was too hard so we have left it alone. We heard from the police that they have a couple of noise provisions that are potentially very effective and can assist them. They are the Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Equipment 2004 and the Land Transport (Road User) Rule 2004 both of which give the police quite a lot of scope to deal with the issue of noise. But to do so they need to be there and they need to be there in sufficient numbers and at the right time to utilise those provisions. The police made those points to us quite strongly. Likewise road safety issues and policing of road safety problems are about having adequate policing. 
Members can see that there are a whole range of possibilities relating to the third issue of antisocial behaviour. Why do young people congregate in these ways and take the actions that they do? Alcohol is certainly one of the reasons and I guess there is an opportunity to look at that. The Law Commission has flagged the issue of drinking and cars and whether more needs to be done in relation to that issue. We have quite strong drink-driving provisions but in the case of illegal street racing and boy racers the issue is not just the driver but the passengers and there is a need to look at their antisocial behaviour which is fuelled by alcohol. Significant things can be done in all of those areas. 
I want to talk a little bit about some of the policing initiatives because I was very impressed with what the police have been doing in some parts of New Zealand. We were led to understand that very effective initiatives and interventions are being undertaken by the police in regard to illegal street racing such as Operation Sniper in Counties-Manukau. I will talk a little bit about that but first I put on record my acknowledgment of the work of the police in relation to this issue. I think the police try very hard with the resources they have to tackle the problem. 
What became clear to us is the need for greater consistency in police behaviour across the country. What has worked well in some parts of the country can be utilised elsewhere. I will explain a little bit more about Operation Sniper in Counties-Manukau. It targets illegal street racing and driving complaints in Counties-Manukau. Basically a full-time sergeant has been put in place to deal with the problems. A number of initiatives have been looked at. These included looking at intelligence around illegal street racing staff training on the relevant legislation and what could be done within the existing rules education campaigns at the local high school using the existing by-laws in place in Manukau City looking at overt and covert police tactics working with partner agencies such as the Manukau City Council and the Department of Corrections working with affected local business owners and residents and trying to develop new initiatives. There has been a significant impact as a result of those initiatives and the numbers bear this out.