Parker David; O'Connor GregThird ReadingHon DAVID PARKER (Minister of Transport) on behalf of the Associate Minister of Transport: I present a legislative statement on the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon DAVID PARKER: I move That the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.As I indicated at the committee stage New Zealand's record when it comes to the number of deaths on our roads—per kilometre—is not as good as countries that we might compare ourselves with. Last year 377 people tragically died on our roads which is equivalent to 7.3 deaths per 100000 people. In comparison in Australia the average across all states is 4.6 deaths per 100000 people. The bestperforming countries in Europe reported a significantly lower two deaths per 100000 people. It's true that some of those deaths can be accounted for by way of population size and public transport and the better motorways that you can have across most of your country than in a smaller spread-out country like New Zealand. None the less we can much improve our safety record. The Government's 202030 Road to Zero Strategy sets what we believe is an achievable target of reducing annual deaths and serious injuries with the intention that there is a 40 percent reduction by 2030. The current situation isn't good enough. The Government is trying to crack down on dangerous driving and ensuring that our roads are safer for everyone to use and get around on. This bill will reduce unsafe driving by providing new tools to respond to fleeing drivers and by addressing other safety matters within the transport system. I'll deal firstly with drivers fleeing from the police. A fleeing driver is a driver who has been signalled to stop by the police but fails to stop or remain stopped until the officer has completed their duties. This bill will complement a refreshed Police fleeing-driver policy. That revised policy came into effect in May this year. This policy is designed to ensure that the police can hold offenders to account for their actions whilst appropriately managing fleeing-driver events as safely as possible. Both the Police's new fleeing-driver policy and this bill respond to a steadily increasing number of fleeing-driver events since 2010. While the number of fleeing-driver events has been growing it is pleasing that the number of resulting deaths has decreased substantially. This was in part due to the 2020 iteration of the Police's fleeing-driver policy which saw more emphasis on post-event investigations rather than in-the-moment pursuits. However a downside of that policy and a difficulty for the police in identification of drivers after the event is evidenced by the fact that the identification rate dropped from 52 percent—already low—to around 34 percent following that 2020 policy change.So while it's critical we maintain the road safety gains we can't sit back and allow lawbreakers who flee the police to get off scot-free which is why we're introducing a new power for the police to seize and impound a vehicle for 28 days if the vehicle's owner or registered owner fails to provide information or misleads the police about the fleeing driver who was driving their vehicle. This will help police identify the driver and incentivise owners to be perhaps more responsible with who they lend their vehicles to. The bill also enables the police—Simon Court: What if it's a finance company?Hon DAVID PARKER: If it's a finance company the finance company interest is provided for in the legislation. The bill also enables police to seize and impound a vehicle involving a fleeing driver for up to six months an increase on the current 28 days. The six-month impoundment is discretionary. Police use discretions like this quite frequently and they will apply their discretion as to when the six-month impoundment rule should be used. It can only be used to prevent a serious threat to road safety. Fleeing drivers often exhibit other unsafe behaviours such as reckless driving or excessive speed. They could be fleeing from a checkpoint because they're over the alcohol limit or evading police because they've been involved in a crime. These situations where the fleeing driver is driving at a high speed involve—Simon Court: It's already a legal one am I right?Hon DAVID PARKER: Already a high number of vehicles are abandoned under the current 28day impoundment regime—Simon Court: You're making something illegal that's already illegal.Hon DAVID PARKER: —and this will expect the figure to—well if it was already illegal why is that member so fixated with the three-strikes legislation? The inconsistency of the ACT Party's arguments knows no bounds. We have introduced a 38-day abandonment provision to provide early financial assurance to towage and storage operating. The bill provides that within 38 days of seizure and impoundments a vehicle's owner or the registered person must either pay the fees in full to the towage and storage operator or enter into a payment arrangement. If neither of these conditions are met the vehicle will be deemed abandoned and can be sold by the operator to recoup costs. The registered person whose vehicle is impounded for six months will be given clear notice of the consequences including the 38day rule along with clear information about how to appeal the impoundment to Police and how to do so.In respect of the penalties imposed by the court the driver's licence disqualification after a second conviction for a failing-to-stop offence is increased from a year to between one and two years and that sentence will be at the court's discretion. A person who has fled from the police not once but twice should in the view of the Government face more serious consequences before being allowed behind the wheel again.Lastly to tackle the problem of fleeing drivers a new sentencing option has been created enabling the courts to exercise a discretionary power to order that a vehicle be forfeited either on first or second conviction for failing to stop. In these cases not only will the offender lose their car but they'll lose out on the proceeds of sale. Confiscation is currently used sparingly by the court and we expect forfeiture orders will be relatively rare as well. None the less it is an important tool for the court to use to improve road safety.The package of legislative changes will both deter people from fleeing the police and reduce opportunities for reoffending. There are also other provisions in there that were discussed at the committee of the whole House stage relating to point-to-point speed cameras and they will have notices to warn people that they're in operation because the intention is to moderate speeds and to discourage people from speeding which is dangerous rather than being to collect revenue.Can I thank the Justice Committee for the time they spent considering the bill. Their recommendations strengthened the legislation. The 33 submissions from organisations and individuals were also valuable. Can I also thank the officials from the Ministry of Transport who assisted not only the select committee but this House. Lastly can I thank members around the House for their contributions in the debate.The purpose of the bill is clear: to crack down on dangerous driving and reduce unsafe behaviour on New Zealand roads. Accordingly I commend the bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.