Moroney SueSUE MORONEY (Labour): This bill in its first reading is another example of what we saw in Parliament last week where the Government has a big problem to solve but it takes a small number of measures that actually will not address the elephant in the room. So just like with housing where it is just tinkering around the edges and not addressing the main problem here we go again but this time it is tinkering with an ever-increasing road toll. That is the problem that this bill ought to be trying to address. We are in an environment where over the course of several decades now the road toll has been progressively coming down in New Zealand—as it should because as we get safer roads to drive on as we get safer technologies into our vehicles of course that has an impact on bringing the road toll down. But somehow that Government has managed to turn that positive trend around and what we find is that right now this Government is leading us into the third consecutive year in a row where the road toll is going up—where the road toll is going up. In 2013 we hit an all-time low for the road toll and that was great news—there were 253 total road deaths. I should not actually call that great news because for those families and the friends of those people who perished on our roads obviously that is a tragedy. But it was a sign that the road toll was coming down. However since then this Government has managed to turn it around and get it going up—in the wrong direction. In 2014 there were 293 deaths on our roads and in 2015 we were back up to 319 deaths on our roads. The news this year—so far—is even worse because as at 15 September this year 225 people have perished on our roads. That equates to a road toll of 220 at the same time last year. So again this Government is about to break its record. It is about to have an ever-increasing road toll. This bill should be addressing that issue but it is not; it is simply tinkering around the edges. Although the bill does actually address heavy vehicles and purports to bring in some measures to make it easier to ping the heavy vehicle operators if they are not complying with the rules unfortunately the rules that that Government brings in keep letting heavier and heavier trucks on our roads. Of course that drives up our road toll. That alone—that measure that that Government is pursuing—is one of the things that is driving up our road toll. How do we know this? We know this because about 18 percent of the deaths on our roads are caused by a truck or have a truck involved in that accident. It is 18 percent despite the fact that heavy vehicles actually account for only 6 percent of the vehicles on our roads. So they are disproportionately causing harm and yet our Government thinks that the way to address that is to keep introducing heavier and longer and higher trucks on to our roads. Well it is no wonder that our road toll keeps going up. Sadly this bill is not addressing the measures that it ought to. However the measures that it does bring in are slight improvements. There is nothing here that we would oppose so the Labour Party members will be supporting this bill at its first reading but we will be very interested to listen to the comments from the submitters as they come and submit on these measures.I cannot speak on this bill without cautioning the Government about the things that it needs to address that it is not addressing in this bill and that will bring down the road toll. For a start this Government can pass any law it likes but that law is not worth anything unless it is prepared to enforce it. I want to hear from a Government member about their commitment to enforce this legislation because at the moment this Government is allowing small passenger services to openly flout the law to skite about it to publicly acknowledge that they are flouting the law and the Government is turning a blind eye. Part of this bill does bring in new regulations to cover the small passenger services. I want that Government to understand that there is no point in changing the law there is no point in bringing in regulations unless it has the guts to enforce those measures and to date the Government has not shown that it actually has the ability to do that when it comes to the small passenger vehicle fleet.While I am talking on that measure the Government also needs to get some guts when it comes to actually ensuring that all the players in the small passenger services area are paying the tax that they are supposed to be paying as well. I hope that the Government will bring a measure in another bill to ensure that that continues to happen. On the issue of small passenger vehicle services Labour does agree with the measures that the Government is taking in terms of regulatory changes that it is making because we believe that we need a safe accessible and efficient small passenger service. But we want one that provides decent-paying jobs and that should be the subject of another piece of legislation. In fact that could have been the subject of a piece of legislation that that Government voted down only 2 weeks ago in this Parliament. The bill brought forward by my colleague the Hon David Parker to ensure that contractors had to be paid at least the minimum wage actually is an issue that needs addressing when it comes to the small passenger vehicle services that are provided in this country. So again the big issues that actually will impact on safety will impact on regulations will actually make sure that we have a safe and efficient service in place are being voted down by this Government. They are the ideas being brought forward by the Labour Party that would actually make a difference.It is also very disappointing to see that there is nothing in this bill that addresses that Government's shameful record when it comes to driver licensing fraud. We know that there has been—and in fact it was uncovered by the media; not the Government itself but it was uncovered by the media—substantial driver licensing fraud happening on our roads here in New Zealand. That puts every other motorist in danger and yet in this amendment bill which does cover a whole range of regulatory issues in the transport sector not one of these measures is designed to address that problem. So again that is another example of the Government trying to look busy in this area trying to look like it is doing something to bring the road toll down but ignoring the major features that make our roads unsafe—and they have become more unsafe under that Government.I want to conclude my contribution by reminding people that this Government has also cut the road policing—the amount of road policing that is happening in this country—and again this legislation does nothing to address that. In fact this legislation brings in a whole range of measures that need to be policed. If you look at the legislation that is being brought in under the six parts of this bill they all require more resourcing from our police department. But what has that Government done? It has actually sidelined the resourcing from our policing department and what we know is that it is the road policing that has taken a big hit and it is no wonder that our road toll keeps climbing under those circumstances.The Labour Party is supporting the small measures that are being implemented in this bill. There are some areas that I am sure we will have some robust discussion about at the select committee but our great disappointment is that the Government has not taken the opportunity to fix up the very big problems that exist on our roads. It is of concern to me that we do not have transport Ministers who understand what the big drivers are of the deaths on our roads and I hope that through the select committee process we can convince that Government to take the measures it really needs to take in order to address this issue. I look forward to that discussion at the select committee and hopefully we can make this a meaningful bill.