Blue Jackie: Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Blue Jackie: Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:671;Page:18048] 
Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 I am very pleased to speak in the Committee stage of the Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill particularly on Part 1. This bill is all about improving road safety in New Zealand and it really complements the Safer Journeys policy which the Minister of Transport brought out earlier in the parliamentary term. It outlined the Government’s policy to 2020. It is a very impressive document and an excellent policy and I think the Minister has shown great leadership. Basically he is implementing that policy. 
This legislation and Part 1 in particular targets the two key types of drivers who are a problem for our roads: young drivers and at-risk drivers. I will give members the statistics on why young drivers are an issue and are overrepresented in the statistics. Young people aged between 15 and 24 which is the definition of a “youth” make up below 14 percent of our population. They represent 16 percent of all licensed drivers. Yet in 2008 they were involved in about 37 percent of all fatal crashes—37 percent of all fatal crashes—and 38 percent of all serious injury crashes. If that does not paint a picture nothing else will. Young drivers are a real problem on our roads. 
Of course there are also at-risk drivers. These are drivers who drink while driving or drink despite having committed previous offences and do not adhere to the rules. Neither of those groups is particularly new; we have known about them for some time. Though we have known about them little progress has been made so this bill is long overdue. The Minister mentioned a shocking statistic: we have a 60 percent worse fatality rate among our young drivers than does Australia. That means we are seriously behind Australia and we need to address that statistic immediately. 
The other thing is that 72 percent of all alcohol-related crashes resulting in death—there is a recent study from which data has been produced—were associated with high-risk drivers. They are those with a previous drink-driving conviction or a first-time offender who is 50 percent over the limit. 
Really Part 1 covers strategies to address those types of at-risk drivers. Those strategies include increasing the minimum driving age to 16 and I am absolutely supportive of that provision. I find it astonishing that the Labour Opposition wanted to retain the age of 15. Quite frankly when I learnt to drive some 30-odd years ago the roads were not as dangerous as they are now. There were about 1 million vehicles on the road; now there are over 3 million and the cars are considerably more powerful. Quite frankly to be a driver on our roads we need our wits about us and that extra year of maturity can help. 
During the consultation phase of the Safer Journeys documentation there was absolutely widespread support for increasing the age to 16. This is not a populist move; this is a move to help save lives particularly the lives of our young drivers who need more common sense. That extra year will give them that. I make no apology for that. 
The other measure is the zero blood-alcohol limit for those under 20. There are many other measures such as alcohol interlocks which bring technology solutions into this legislation. Importantly the alcohol interlocks are not paid for by the State; they have to be paid for by the person who volunteers or wishes to use alcohol interlocks. There is no cost to the State for that measure. 
Obviously for drink-driving offenders there is a zero blood-alcohol limit. It is not acceptable for them to drink then drive and it is not negotiable. Drink-driving offenders cannot drive at all with alcohol in their system. Of course strengthening the penalties for causing death is another measure. 
I take the opportunity to talk about our alcohol culture. We have a problem with youth drinking and binge drinking. I know that the Alcohol Reform Bill which is currently under consideration will go some way to addressing that problem. 
I take the opportunity to digress a little and talk about FebFast. When FebFast finished the Christchurch earthquake had occurred and it was not really the time to congratulate members who had taken part. FebFast was an initiative whereby people elected not to drink alcohol for the month of February and the money raised went to youth drink-driving prevention programmes.