Hipkins Chris: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — In Committee 
Hipkins Chris: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — In Committee 
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CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 I am happy to take a brief call on Part 2 of the Courts and Criminal Matters Bill which deals with the introduction of driver licence stop orders. It is a part that I support. I think it is a useful initiative that will certainly help to collect overdue fines. 
I do want however to draw the Committee’s attention to a comment made in the Law and Order Committee’s report on this part. I quote from it: “The committee was interested in the advice of the New Zealand Police that it was their policy to waive infringements for expired warrants of fitness or for outdated registrations of one month or less where the fault was remedied in a timely manner.” 
I am particularly interested in that comment which is all to do with overdue fines because effectively it says that in New Zealand we have a 7-month warrant of fitness. In fact we do not. We have a 6-month warrant of fitness or a 12-month warrant of fitness depending on the age of the vehicle. I have always been under the impression so this was a surprise to me that the obligation was on the owner of a vehicle to have the warrant of fitness renewed before such time as it expired. 
This bill is saying that we can extend the life of the warrant of fitness by an additional month by simply running the risk that if we get caught then whip our car in to get a warrant of fitness the next day we will get away with not having renewed the warrant of fitness. 
Jonathan Young 
: No you don’t; it’s retrospective. They don’t start from that day. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: Warrants of fitness do start from the day they are issued. Jonathan Young is a little mistaken. Registration is different but a warrant of fitness takes effect on the day on which it is issued. This policy that is in place by the police now effectively tells people to take the risk and wait until their warrant of fitness is a month overdue then go and get it. If people get caught in the interim period they will be able to whip their car in get the warrant of fitness and be deemed to have remedied it and the fine that they might have otherwise received will be waived. 
I think that sends the wrong message to people. I think responsible vehicle owners should make sure their vehicle has a current warrant of fitness. If we want to say as a Parliament that the vehicle warrant of fitness should be for 7 months then let us change the law and say that it should be for 7 months. It is not; it is for 6 months. This policy that is in place by the police and as mentioned by the select committee effectively gives a 7-month warrant of fitness. I think that is something the Committee may want to give some attention to. 
I move back to the driver licence stop order which allows somebody’s licence to be effectively taken away if the driver has outstanding fines. I think that is a useful thing. I was concerned when learning of this however about how it can apply to a limited licence—to somebody who relies on their licence for work. How will this impact on them? We could see a situation in which someone gets themselves into debt they have a licence for work and suddenly that licence is taken away and they cannot earn any money. Therefore how do they earn the money to pay the fines in order to get the licence back again? 
I was reassured by the comment from the select committee that the person involved did not necessarily have to pay all of the fines; they needed to enter into an arrangement for the payment of the fines. Had it been the other way around I would be very reluctant to support this bill because I think it is really important that we do not rob somebody who has got themselves into a bit of financial difficulty with outstanding fines of the means to earn the money to pay those fines back. 
A person might get themselves into that difficulty and that vicious cycle and they might have all these outstanding fines and suddenly find that their licence has been taken away but providing that they negotiate an arrangement over time to repay those fines and the debt that they owe they will be able to get their licence back. I think that is really important otherwise we run the risk of giving ourselves more difficulty in collecting the fines than we have intended to with this particular part. 
The other thing that is really important is that people are sent a warning notice giving them 14 days to resolve their traffic penalties before their licence is suspended. I think that is really important. Again we have this issue now whereby somebody is caught they have received these fines and they are given 14 days first up to sort themselves out. Even if they do not and they lose their licence after that period of time they still have the option of entering into a repayment arrangement at which point if they do that they can potentially get their licence back as I read it. 
If I am mistaken on that point it would be useful to have that clarified because I think it is quite critical and it is certainly part of my comfort with the bill and one of the reasons for supporting it. If that is not the case I would certainly like for that to be pointed out to me. 
Overall I can see the value in this provision. It is a good bill.