Adams Paul: Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Adams Paul: Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:4577] 
PAUL ADAMS (United Future) 
: 
 I cannot as an old boy racer sit here any longer listening to this debate. United Future definitely does support this bill. It is a good bill. I have read the wording and I think it is very good for the exact situation that it covers. I do get concerned however when I hear of all the young hoons mentioned because to be honest they are not all young hoons. Everybody who runs a performance car or a lowered car or a fast car is not a hoon. But unfortunately there would be as in most places a 10 percent element that gives others an underserved bad reputation. I for one was very disappointed when they took the toll plaza down on our Auckland roads not because I would not have to pay tolls but because I could no longer have a drag race out of the toll plaza which of course I only did to 100 kilometres an hour. 
Peter Brown 
: The truth’s coming out now. 
PAUL ADAMS 
: The truth is coming out. The element that this bill deals with is a very dangerous element and it is a great concern to a large percentage of the New Zealand public. I share that concern. Some people have good intentions and they even have many good skills on how to build and prepare a motorcar but sadly they do not use those in the correct places. Right throughout this country there are small car clubs and large car clubs that cater for all types of events. If people want to spin their cars around on the grass I would encourage them to join a car club and learn car control skills at the correct venue. But likewise as we grow older we realise that some of the things we did in our younger years were not wise. As parliamentarians we have a job to protect the citizens of this country and that is why I commend this legislation. I think it is very good. It is legislation that is necessary to cover the actual problem we are dealing with. 
A lot is spoken about wheelspin. A lot of the cars that we are dealing with are four-wheel drive and therefore have extremely good traction. To spin the wheels they are set up in position with liquids on the ground. They then become very dangerous. They can easily come off the slippery surface get traction on a dry piece of road and just fire off into the crowd or a lamp post or anything else at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately many of the young people who are doing this can drive in the conditions they are in but as soon as that condition changes they have got a ball of fire that they have no idea whatsoever how to handle. 
United Future members agree with this legislation and we support it. I would speak to the young people of the nation who are perhaps listening to the passage of this bill and tell them that we are not against them. We want to encourage them to go to the venues where they can use and even fine-tune their skills and have a lot of fun. But the public roads of New Zealand are not the place for this to happen and therefore United Future stands strongly behind this legislation. It is necessary legislation and it disappoints me when I hear parties standing up and not supporting this type of legislation when they know that this activity is going on and know that it is lethal and needs to be stopped. Sadly the only way we will stop them is to take their vehicles from them. There is no other way. So if they choose to continue to behave this way on public roads we will remove their ability to do so. We support this legislation.