Jones Shane: Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Jones Shane: Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:4091] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Tena tatou. Before I stand and support other speakers I will acknowledge the success enjoyed by Metiria Turei in her new status as a co-leader Te Ropu Kakariki and it is a pleasure to see such an obliging progressive and future-orientated Maori woman taking such a position of responsibility in a minority party. I wish her well in the future. 
As my colleagues have said this is a rare occasion: I find myself agreeing with the Hon Steven Joyce the Minister in charge of the Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill. However the other person I agree with in commending this bill to go to the select committee is Clayton Cosgrove. To borrow an expression of a slightly divine nature he did the Lord’s work in highlighting the hazardous nature of the owners of these cars or the operators of these cars and brought legislation to the House in times gone by. We discovered that despite what this House does in relation to exercising its sovereignty—the sovereignty of Parliament—once the legislation is enacted and once the regulatory scheme is implemented it falls into the lap of the judiciary. In the form of democracy we practise we have the Diceyean split. In the classic Westminster model we make the law the judiciary construes the law and the executive executes the law. 
I say to the Minister bringing forward this legislation that he should not overlook the challenges that the existing code has. It contains a range of punitive measures which to date the courts have been reluctant to visit upon these perpetual recidivist wretched and villainous offenders who destroy the good peace of that English countryside atmosphere down there in Christchurch. That really is the challenge for us as parliamentarians especially those of us who will be on the select committee listening to the submissions and refining this law. Law needs to be written in such a way that it does not just please the pugilistic tendencies of the current Minister. Rather it is designed— 
Chris Tremain 
: Pugilistic tendencies? 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: That is part of Ngapuhi dialect; it may not be in Hawke’s Bay. Law must be designed so that it can be implemented and enforced by the courts. 
For the purposes of the record let us identify what some of the problems have been. Mr Joyce and Darien Fenton have alerted us to the fact that God-fearing garden-variety Kiwis as Mr Peachey said in hospital and other places have been driven to distraction. There was the dreadful incident where the woman working for airport security in the South Island was attacked. I think that has less to do with kids wanting to race fast cars and more to do with thuggery criminality and I should imagine drugs and alcohol. The sooner those people are rounded up the better for the reputation of people who actually enjoy fast cars and motorbikes. I come from the far north where it never rains and it is constantly winterless. One way in which we deal with these sorts of challenges happens in a little township called Taipa. It is a pleasant harmonious place so it never sees Hone Harawira. However we have there a North Auckland Tai Tokerau version carved out of sandstone. I would enjoin Mr Joyce when he goes up there to put the culvert under the road near our township in Mangonui. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: He’s nodding his head. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: Yes; Wayne Brown assures me that the Minister has committed to saving the local environment and to putting a culvert under there. 
Chris Tremain 
: He’ll personally dig it. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: He is digging enough holes; we do not need him to dig one up there. However the consequence of having this speedway is that those families—those kids their parents and the teenage lads—can go there burn tyres and let off steam. Bizarrely enough it is only a couple of hundred metres from the marae. Given that it is one of our marae called Karipori named for the return of the Gallipoli veterans of the Maori Pioneer Battalion there have been various loud noises coming from parties there so I guess the events compete with each other from time to time. But the point is that those of us who want to drive a better outcome for the situation where people are breaking the law by using these cars in this fashion should not overlook the fact that they have to go somewhere. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: And they will. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: As my senior colleague says they will find some space. 
I say to Mr Joyce that there is the ongoing difficulty of who will own the car. I look forward one day to a cartoon that will show Mr Joyce and possibly Minister Collins being responsible for taking granny’s waka or mother’s waka because we should not underestimate the infinite ingenuity of the younger generation— 
Hon Steven Joyce 
: Only if granny doesn’t know what it is. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: I did not talk about Minister Collins’ granny. That was Steven Joyce and those guys. I did not refer to her in that fashion. The select committee will need to look at that issue—that is whether people will seek to make an ass of the law by simply circumventing those provisions. I think that that will take a great deal of the committee’s time and attention. In effecting a change to people’s driving behaviour and how they relate to vehicles we should draw a distinction between people who use vehicles as a missile or a projection of their own distorted personalities and people who are just out there to do harm to others create mayhem and hurt innocent members of the public. They should be preyed upon on a regular basis. 
I refer to the point that Minister Collins made about this bill being a sudden answer to a longstanding problem. I will not borrow those tired metaphors about “crusher” etc. but the reality is that she has refused to give suitable credit to the work that Clayton Cosgrove completed in this area. These are iterative things. Each politician who takes an interest in a certain matter convinces his or her colleagues and then the force of Parliament is brought to bear. There is not some apocalyptic response and there is not some single conclusive word. I think it behoves the Minister if she wants a win-win situation when this bill comes back to the House to ensure that the members who are on the committee take a very pragmatic and open-minded approach to the ideas that will inevitably come from our side of the House. Mr Joyce has made a number of remarks about all sides. Far be it from me to be partisan on this troublesome issue. However I will not be standing before some granny or mother who discovers that her flash car in Tolaga Bay—oh that is a waka not a car; that is a hoiho—will be confiscated. There will end up being a little bit of wriggle room in the hands of judges. I encourage Minister Collins and those members of the committee to adopt that spirit. 
Apparently under this law councils can ban what is to be called cruising. [ 
Interruption 
] I have this image I say to Mr Tremain. I know that Mr Heatley is a bit of a cruiser around Whangarei but he has now abandoned Whangarei. He does not live there. He has shut his office. His office has closed. I know that the member who represents Horowhenua has a reputation for cruising but when he goes around Foxton and Levin no one is awake so it does not make any difference. I can just imagine the Minister of Police in a big V8 cruising around searching for offenders finding people who are wandering around in a souped-up waka and pouncing on them from a great height—a cruiser looking for a bruiser. 
I will finish on a more important note. Many people have been driven to distraction over this issue and we support the effort that the Minister is bringing to the House. We look forward to working in a collegial and constructive way to bring back a law that is capable of being implemented by the judiciary so that it hurts the people who deserve to be penalised and does not represent unnecessary levels of regulatory creep. I am noticing a tendency of this new Government to become like a nanny State in regulating against everything. It is starting to infringe and constrict and it is starting to limit the liberties of us as citizens. It really must stop. Thank you very much.