Mahuta Nanaia: Land Transport (Driver Licensing) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Mahuta Nanaia: Land Transport (Driver Licensing) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12537] 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Minister of Customs) 
: 
 I rise to speak today on the Land Transport (Driver Licensing) Amendment Bill and certainly welcome the opportunity to debate the issues raised in relation to the proposal to raise the driving age and extend the learner licence period. We have to keep our eye on the ball because far too many of our young people are dying on the roads. We need to consider what more needs to be done. In doing so we should not fool ourselves that legislation in itself is the answer. By and large the responsibility of parents and the way they teach their young people how to drive and more public education—as the previous speaker Te Ururoa Flavell raised—are elements to be able to tackle the real issue in front of us. 
The Government is committed to sending this bill to a select committee to ensure that it gets a full and robust hearing. I certainly urge more young people and parents to make submissions to the select committee on this matter because it affects them. I am hopeful that through the course of this debate we will hear informed debate based on fact rather than fiction and certainly based on sound evidence. Members who have spoken before me have highlighted the need to get good information at the select committee in order to give this bill full consideration. 
A number of issues have been raised by members. It is worth highlighting them if anything so as to commence this debate in a full and frank manner. Issues have been raised about whether the debate should centre on whether setting the age at 15 or 16 is the best way to deal with this—I think the jury is out on that. To some extent we may delay the period for young people in gaining experience on the road which I think is where we would best spend our efforts in considering the matter. 
The other issue is around exemptions for young people and this is certainly a matter for rural communities. If we start this debate with that premise at the forefront then we have already lost sight of what the real goal is. However I accept the very real issues raised in relation to difficulties faced by young people in rural areas. For example they do not have public transport or the options for public transport to be able to get to sporting activities or to work. What we do know is that a lot more young people work at a younger age and they do need to get to their jobs. They do not have the public transport options available to them. So we should consider the factors of rurality in light of the issues that young people have around transportation. 
The other issue that was raised during the course of this debate was around the issue of safety. My colleague the Minister for Transport Safety Harry Duynhoven raised the issue of whether further consideration should be given to the types of vehicles that young people have access to and whether this might moderate some of the aspects of poor driving behaviour. Again more information on that issue might be helpful. A very substantial contribution was made on the role that supervised driving could have in improving the driving behaviour of young people on the road and this is certainly an area that I will come to later. 
By and large though there are two aspects of this debate that we should never lose sight of. Firstly too many of our young people are dying on the roads. That should not happen it must not happen and we can do more here. It takes a more comprehensive effort to do that—partly through legislation and also through a commitment within our families and communities to ensure that young people are safe on the roads. The other part is understanding the contexts for the decisions we are going to make that will have an effect on young people. In a sense gaining a driver’s licence for young people is their first step to independence. It is a way in which they can positively engage in community activities positively engage in terms of supporting their own independence and getting a job and positively engage in socialising with the broader part of the community that they are involved in. I think that more social connectedness of young people to their community is a good thing and that we should find ways to encourage more of that. 
Much has been said about the statistics and I just want to make a brief comment here because the statistics released by the Ministry of Transport about young drivers earlier this year confirmed that motor vehicles are the leading causes of death and injury amongst young people aged between 15 and 24 years. In addition to that males are more likely to be involved in crashes and those crashes are more likely to occur on a Friday or Saturday night. Importantly fatalities involving young drivers between the ages of 15 and 24 years represent about a quarter of all drivers involved in fatal accidents. So there is a very good reason to debate this issue right now. It is the right time to do so and we should ensure that this is a robust debate. But we need to ensure that we are targeting the problem in front of us and more important finding the best solutions for our young people their families and their communities and with their input. 
Often age or more particularly youthfulness is associated with inexperience. A simplistic analysis might suggest that merely by raising the driving age one might gain more experience or on the other hand that if that decision is delayed the opportunity for experience will be gained. Research shows that in the instance of driving a lack of time behind the wheel rather than age is a primary factor in increasing the risk of having an accident. I certainly hope that by debating the issue of age consideration will also be given to the aspects of supervised time provided to young people who are learning to drive. I have a teenager in our house who wants to drive right now. I am trying to say: “No you’re too young. Not until I can spend the time with you behind the wheel in the car actually going through it can you learn to drive.” And that is from someone who learnt to drive at a very early age at 15—as soon as I could get my licence I certainly did. 
But really that is to highlight the critical role that parents have. Parents have a role to ensure that when they are teaching a young person to drive—and let us face it most parents teach their children how to drive because often many parents cannot afford to pay for someone else to do it—they understand just how critical the aspect of supervised driving and dialogue while driving is and how much of a positive effect that can have for a young person in his or her experience. If parents understood that I am sure that they would be armoured with the right tools to be able to teach their children how to drive. It is my view that if we can do something in that area around supervised driving and extend the learner licence period in this bill as a positive step towards that aspect then I think we will be making positive steps alongside young people. Research tells us that supervised driving practice for up to about 120 hours before solo driving will produce a safer driving skills set. The average supervised driving time here in New Zealand is about 40 hours so we know that there is a lot more to do in this area. In part the extended length of the learner licence period from 6 to 12 months as I said previously provides a good opportunity for supervised driving to be addressed and puts some onus of responsibility on to parents. 
Finally I would like to draw the attention of the House to some of the recommendations made during the Youth Parliament when we had the Youth Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. That committee investigated the issue of young people involved in motor vehicle accidents and fatalities. It found that the most dangerous period for a driver is the first 6 months of solo driving. The committee went on to recommend regarding the graduated driver’s-licence system that the learner period be extended from 6 to 18 months with a reduction to 12 months if a defensive driving course is completed. The committee also recommended that subsidised defensive-driving courses be offered through schools that there be a tougher restricted licence test that we enable the attainment of a full licence by the automatic progressive relaxation of restricted conditions for those with a clean licence and that an enhancement of educational support for learner drivers and their parents be embarked on. In part the consideration of road safety issues during Youth Parliament precedes this debate we are having today. It is my hope that full consideration will be given to the propositions in this bill that weight will be given to the evidence around supervised driving and that some insight will be gained from recommendations from the Youth Parliament select committee that dealt with part of the issue we are dealing with here. 
I certainly look forward to the report back of the select committee and to having a further debate in this House. It is my sincere hope that there is no politicisation of the debate because for our best intents and purposes we really want to achieve greater safety on our roads for young people.