Hodgson Pete: Land Transport Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Hodgson Pete: Land Transport Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:21370] 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 I move  
That the Land Transport Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. I thank members for their work on this bill. The examination it has been given and the amendments made have improved it considerably. The bill is a result of a series of reviews and it is intended to improve the safety and security of road users in line with the New Zealand Transport Strategy. It also remedies a number of problems in the legislative framework regarding the responsibilities of road users traffic offences and penalties and the driver-licensing system. 
Its main features and significant amendments include a requirement to surrender superseded driver licences in response to police and hospitality industry concerns that superseded learner and restricted licences are being used to assist minors to gain entry to licensed establishments. This bill contains amendments to transport operator licensing in line with the 2001 review. They aim to simplify and clarify licensing requirements and to reduce compliance costs for transport operators. 
The bill also includes measures to improve commercial driver standards through the Ministry Rules Programme. Those include enhanced accountability for taxi organisations and strengthened offence and penalty provisions. It now also requires taxi service licence holders and drivers to provide company details in Braille inside taxis. That step should enhance the security of visually impaired taxi passengers. 
The bill prohibits persons convicted of serious violent and sexual offences from being a passenger service driver. That will address the risk to public safety from having those with such convictions in a one-on-one situation with passengers. The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee extended the scope of the provision in order to cover offences committed prior to the commencement of the bill which means that the provision will apply to existing passenger service drivers with convictions for serious violent and sexual offences. 
The House has further amended the provision following concerns raised by the select committee to allow some individuals convicted of certain listed offences—but not murder or sexual offences—to apply to have their passenger endorsements reinstated in extremely limited circumstances. The circumstances apply when the conviction is more than 10 years old and when the applicant has not been convicted of an imprisonable offence in the previous 10 years. I consider that that approach appropriately balances the ability of those posing no risk to the safety of the public to maintain their passenger endorsements with the legitimate personal security concerns of the users of passenger services. 
The bill clarifies that home community support workers who occasionally give rides to their clients—to help them with shopping for example—do not require passenger service licences. It was originally intended that that matter be clarified via the forthcoming operator licensing rule. However I accept that considerable uncertainty has arisen in the home-based care sector as to whether licensing is required and so that issue should be rectified quickly. 
In addition operators of courtesy coach services have raised concerns that the bill will affect the service they provide. I can assure them that the bill does not require courtesy services to be licensed where the payment of a fare is not a condition of carriage. However there will be an opportunity in the upcoming months for organisations to comment further on the passenger licensing provisions during the development of the operator licensing rule. I will ensure that those organisations that have contacted me on that matter are kept informed about the submission process. 
Work is also under way to extend the current exemption to passenger service licensing for car-pooling arrangements to include initiatives such as the Rideshare programme currently being developed in Auckland along with other social informal or not-for-profit activities. It has never been this Government’s intention to capture those arrangements in the licensing regime; clarification would therefore be useful and I will seek to implement those exemptions by regulation as soon as practicable. 
Following consultation and a review the bill retains prescribed driving-hours and logbooks for commercial drivers. The select committee has placed key limits on the allowable hours in the primary Act. That gives due emphasis to the importance of managing fatigue within the transport industry. The bill also simplifies the driving-hours and logbook system and introduces a new simpler definition of work time. Additionally it introduces a new “chain of responsibility” offence to ensure that employers and other industry participants are held accountable if they knowingly allow or cause driving-hour breaches. It also covers offences for load security overloading and speeding where commercial vehicles are involved. Those are positive measures which by making the likes of consignees and consignors equally liable where they have knowingly contributed to an offence will help improve the safety of commercial transport services. 
The bill contains a number of common-sense amendments to remedy several defects in transport legislation. Those include empowering police to serve a notice of licence suspension at the roadside on a driver with more than 100 demerit points where the director has been unable to serve the notice. They also include ensuring that driving offences involving injury or death apply both on and off a road and updating the definition of “motor vehicle” to exclude vehicles powered by very small motors. The maximum power output for low-powered vehicles has been increased to 300 watts or higher for specified classes of vehicles such as electrical bicycles. 
During the debate on this bill the United Future party raised the issue of excessively noisy vehicles. As a consequence of discussions with them and with the Greens the bill now strengthens the sanctions and tools available to enforcement officers to deal with excessively noisy vehicles. It does that by assigning 10 demerit points for vehicle noise offences and by increasing fines. This bill contains a large number of positive changes to the legislative framework underpinning land transport safety. Not only will it improve safety and help save lives but it will also reduce unnecessary complication and business compliance costs. I commend it to the House.