Connell Brian: Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Connell Brian: Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:4571] 
BRIAN CONNELL (NZ National—Rakaia) 
: 
 I thank the Committee for the opportunity to make another contribution to this debate. I note that the commencement date will be 28 days after the royal assent. That will allow sufficient time following the third reading for the police to print the required notices of empowerment and for other necessary administrative preparation to be completed. In essence this is really just a logical common-sense administration clause. Therefore I support it. 
It probably does not really matter if this legislation takes another month to come into force anyway. I made the point earlier that this bill has been around now since it was reported back in November 2002. I have to take issue with the Government again over its delay on this legislation. The Government said it would push it through under urgency and if this is an example of the Government’s urgency then it is no wonder that this country of ours is burdened down with red tape and bureaucracy. This legislation is an example of how this Government acts in a very ponderous manner. 
Dr Cullen needs to take some of the blame for the delay. I have already made the point that if he had agreed to have this bill bumped up the Order Paper it could have been dealt with. If he had agreed to that we would not be sitting here in urgency dealing with this matter and peoples’ loved ones out there might not have been lost. The bill was only moved up the Order Paper after I and my National colleagues told the people who had come to us in their droves—and I repeat in their droves—asking why the Government was not moving on this legislation that they should telephone or write to Dr Cullen because he was the person who was holding this legislation up and that if he said yes then it would be dealt with. I know that some of those people wrote to Dr Cullen or phoned him and that has made the difference. Dr Cullen has got off his high horse and at long last he is listening to the people. He is getting back in touch with the grass roots of this country is listening to the people who are desperately concerned about boy racers and their activities and is now prepared to do something about that. On that basis we commend him. 
I noticed the purpose clause as I glanced through the bill. It states: “The purpose of this Act is to amend the Land Transport Act 1998 to combat the problem of illegal street and drag racing and the practice of performing wheel spins and other dangerous stunts on public roads.” Some members of this Committee seem to be driving a perception that there is a law in place to cater for those types of activities. But there is not. If the police could act now there would not be tens of thousands of New Zealanders out there at the moment asking for legislation to take care of this problem. The police who are listening to this debate must be absolutely cringing. The party that the police probably thought they could rely on—the ACT party the party that was most strongly going to support the police with its zero-tolerance stand on crime—is the very party that is letting them down. The police must be cringing and like me they are probably scratching their heads at that. 
There is a perception that the issue is just about unlicensed activities—drink-driving or speed. People can do doughnuts—that is the terminology—burnouts put oil the road and kill people by going from zero to 50 kilometres an hour without breaking the law. When police apprehend people their defence is that that is not dangerous driving. The lawyers who came to the Law and Order Committee and said that we were using a sledgehammer to break a nut are the very people who stand up and say those activities do not break the law and are skilful rather than dangerous driving. The people who do those things thumb their noses at the police and off they go. When the police do apprehend someone and give him or her a ticket that person goes into the police station and is out again in 5 minutes. Those people then hold their tickets up like badges of honour. They get in their cars and continue with their activities or a mate drives the car and they continue with their activities. The only way to deal with this problem is to take the cars off the road.