Moroney Sue: Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Moroney Sue: Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:671;Page:18045] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to take a call in the Committee stage of the Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill on Part 1. As some of my colleagues have mentioned previously drink-driving is a really big issue in the Waikato where I come from and in particular in Hamilton. 
I know that the local Government members have been trying to confuse the issue by telling people who are concerned about the lack of leadership from the Government on reducing the legal blood-alcohol limit for drink-driving that it is not an issue for the Alcohol Reform Bill that it is a Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill issue and that we will deal with it in that bill. Mr Bennett is shaking his head but I have been at a meeting where Mr Macindoe said exactly that to submitters who wanted to submit on the issue of reducing the legal blood-alcohol limit in the consideration of the Alcohol Reform Bill. They were told by the Government MPs that the Alcohol Reform Bill was the wrong bill. Those MPs tried to look sympathetic about it and as if they agreed with the audience. They said people would get their chance when the Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill came forward. 
Of course now that that bill is before us where are those Hamilton MPs on the issue of reducing the legal blood-alcohol limit? They are not pushing for that measure to be included in the bill. Nanaia Mahuta and I are the only Hamilton-based MPs who are pushing for a lowering of the blood-alcohol limit— 
David Bennett 
: You’re not Hamilton-based. Where do you live? 
SUE MORONEY 
: I live in Hamilton as Mr Bennett well knows but I thank him for allowing me to clarify that. 
David Bennett 
: You don’t live in Hamilton. 
SUE MORONEY 
: I can tell Mr Bennett that yes I do. He might want to look at the new register that has come out. I live in Hamilton and the member will have to swallow his words as he will many more times. 
I will come back to the issue which is about who in Hamilton is prepared to stand up for the view that was so clearly expressed in the survey from the  
Waikato Times 
 in which 68 percent of the people of Hamilton said they thought the blood-alcohol limit was not good enough. Only 19 percent of the people in that survey of 418 people in Hamilton said they agreed with the current limit. The Government is on the side of 19 percent of Hamiltonians. That is where the Government sits on the issue. 
The other 86 percent of Hamiltonians will be looking towards this side of the House to represent their views that the limit ought to be lower. That is what those Hamiltonians firmly believe. Why do they believe that? It is because they have had enough of the carnage on the roads. They have also had enough of how alcohol affects our entire community to the detriment of the community. They have had enough of that and they want leadership on the issue of the blood-alcohol limit. Sadly with this bill they are not getting leadership from the Government on that issue but they can look to the Labour benches for leadership because Labour is prepared to stand up and vote for a reduction in the blood-alcohol limit for drink-driving for over-20-year-olds. 
I know that the Chair ruled that the Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Bill perhaps has nothing to do with railways but I can say that the bill has everything to do with other forms of transport because they are a way that road safety can be improved. The Government is absolutely opposed to putting in a passenger train service for Hamilton and Auckland. That is another issue on which Hamiltonians will have to look to this side of the House to have addressed. Only Nanaia Mahuta and I are standing up and fighting for getting a passenger train service between Hamilton and Auckland— 
Paul Quinn 
: Relevancy! It’s got nothing to do with trains. 
SUE MORONEY 
: —which of course will improve road safety and I say to Mr Quinn that I believe that road safety is what we are debating. A passenger train service along with some of the measures in the bill will improve road safety. Is the Government interested in pursuing that train service? Not only is the Government not interested in pursuing the train service but also it is in outright opposition to getting that very logical sensible service between the fourth-largest city and the largest city in our country.