Moroney Sue: Land Transport Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Moroney Sue: Land Transport Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1925] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to propose the amendment in the name of the Hon Jim Anderton set out on Supplementary Order Paper 14. I was a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee that in the very short time given to it looked at this bill which amends the Land Transport Act. The select committee found the issues very difficult to deal with in terms of trying to get a balance. Public safety was obviously paramount in our thoughts as we looked at the legislation. We were also thinking about consistency. That was at the forefront of our minds when we discussed the issues in the select committee. Workability of course is very important in this type of legislation. Mixed in with that is the reputation and the trust of the industry involved. Another issue we had to consider was for how long and for what reasons society continues to punish people who have already been dealt with by our justice system. 
So in talking to this amendment I wish to say that it supports all of those concepts that the select committee was trying to deal with and it brings some balance to them. The amendments set out on the Supplementary Order Paper allow people who have been convicted of an offence specified in section 29A of the Land Transport Act to apply for a passenger endorsement as long as they were not sentenced to imprisonment for a term exceeding 12 months for that offence. The bill as reported back allowed only those who were convicted under sections 134 and 135 of the Crimes Act and who were not imprisoned to apply. 
The other thing that the Supplementary Order Paper does is to allow people convicted of a specified serious offence and who had a passenger endorsement deemed expired by amendments to the Land Transport Act that came into effect on 16 January 2006 to apply to have their endorsement reinstated. If the offence was a sexual offence an application can be made as long as the sentence for that offence was not a period of imprisonment of more than 12 months. So this amendment promotes consistency. 
The question it raises is how long society actually continues to punish people and interfere with their rehabilitation. Some of the people who currently have been disadvantaged by the legislation the select committee was considering were handed down sentences of imprisonment for as little as 1 month. The particular individual to whom I refer was handed down a sentence of 1 month’s imprisonment in 1964. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: 41 years ago. 
SUE MORONEY 
: That is right and this person is not able to continue in his occupation because of the 1 month’s sentence of imprisonment that was handed down. Those are some of the examples of the people this amendment seeks to support. The justice system worked to ensure that offenders pay their debt; the job of this legislation is to ensure public safety. This amendment will achieve that through using the term of imprisonment handed down to offenders as a means of determining whether they can apply to the Director of Land Transport for passenger endorsement. 
I acknowledge that the amendment deals with many of the issues raised by Keith Locke and the Green Party when Keith Locke spoke about the issue of double jeopardy. I also want to acknowledge that the amendment also deals with the issues raised by Hone Harawira and the Maori Party. Hone Harawira spoke of the concepts of restorative justice—he referred to it as justice that heals not justice that hammers—and the willingness to look for the good in people. I believe that we can look for the good in people who have offended and received sentences of imprisonment of 1 or 2 months in some instances. We need to allow the Director of Land Transport to apply the criteria in deciding whether these people should be allowed to be part of the passenger transport industry. This amendment gives those people the right to apply. I would like to move that amendment.