Twyford Phil: Land Transport (Speed Limits Validation and Other Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Land Transport (Speed Limits Validation and Other Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5151. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū):If there was ever any evidence needed that the process of pushing legislation through under urgency is flawed it was in that speech from the Minister Simon Bridges—and the limits of this rushed and truncated process. It does strike trepidation into the hearts of the members of this House.Having said that we on the Labour benches are supporting the passage of this bill for the reason that is laid out I think very clearly in the departmental disclosure statement which explains that consultation on the issues and solutions to do with this bill have been restricted to central government officials departments and the New Zealand Transport Agency because of—and I suppose this is the essence of the justification for this validating legislation going through under urgency this afternoon—the potential public safety risks from motorists deliberately disregarding speed limits on the basis that they may be invalid should the issue become widely known. If urgent parliamentary action is not taken on the matter it could take months for a road-controlling authority to correct speed limit by-laws. This would be due to the need to advertise and consult on any new by-laws using the Local Government Act 2002 consultative requirements.So there you have it. The House is between a rock and a hard place. Because of confusion over the legislative authorities that the councils would use going back a number of years now to create the by-laws for the setting of speed limits we have got ourselves into a real mess. It was only because the Kāpiti Coast District Council realised that its by-laws were invalid because it had failed to follow the prescription—it had passed these by-laws under the Local Government Act 2002—and it had failed to observe the requirements in that Act that it should review by-laws after 5 years and subsequently after every 10 years. The Kāpiti Coast District Council realised that its by-laws were technically invalid—or just invalid I should say—calling into question the validity of I am sure thousands of speeding infringements and the officials—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. The time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break. This debate is interrupted and I shall resume the Chair at 7.30 p.m.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.PHIL TWYFORD: Mr Assistant Speaker—Carmel Sepuloni: Where are all the National women?PHIL TWYFORD: There does seem to be a bit of a groundswell of members asking: “Where are the National women?”. Jacqui Dean has saved the day by joining us.I just wanted to reiterate one of the things that is most interesting in the departmental disclosure statement that I began to touch on before the dinner break and that is really the reason why in the House today we are supporting the passage of this bill in spite of the distaste that I think everybody shares for retrospective legislation and in spite of the rushed truncated process that we fear may lead to further errors being made that will require consequent future validating bills to come back to the House.The nub of it is that there is a potential public safety risk from motorists deliberately disregarding speed limits on the basis that they may be invalid in the event that this issue was to become publicly known about. That is why this bill has to be dealt with under urgency. If it was not it could take months under the existing legislative powers for local authorities to pass new by-laws because of the need under the Local Government Act 2002 to consult and to advertise.The final point I wanted to make in this debate is really to ask the Government members present for this debate whether or not they have given consideration—and I would welcome the Minister making a contribution to answer this in this third reading debate—and whether or not the Minister has considered the communications to councils because it is quite possible that somewhere around New Zealand some council may have a meeting tomorrow or in the next day or two at which their officers could recommend after a 12-month process that the council formally adopt new by-laws providing for new speed limits in their area. But if it is following the process that many councils have been for the last few years it could simply repeat the error that the Minister thinks that possibly up to 25 territorial local authorities have committed that has got them into this mess.My understanding is that this bill will get its Royal assent if not tonight then tomorrow.Hon Simon Bridges: Tonight.PHIL TWYFORD: Tonight? The bill will get Royal assent today. The fastest lawmaking in the West pretty much all in one afternoon and it will have the force of law before the clock strikes midnight before the cock crows.Unless the Minister has communicated with councils around the country in the last few hours there is the possibility that some of them may compound the error. I would like to know whether or not the Minister has thought of that and whether or not this bill and its intent and its consequences have been communicated to councils around the country.Just to wrap up mistakes happen and in this case mistakes compound upon mistakes because of a lack of clarity in the legislation over a considerable number of years. As many as 25 territorial local authorities have got themselves into a real mess. That may well have resulted in tens of thousands of traffic infringements being rendered invalid because those councils did not follow the prescribed processes in the Local Government Act that would have required them to review their by-laws. It is a very significant problem for public safety and for the safety of people on the streets in terms of the importance of speed limits on the roads. It really has potential reputational damage for our police who are charged with the responsibility of implementing road safety and enforcing those speed limits. With some reluctance Labour will be supporting this validating legislation.