Mark Ron: Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Mark Ron: Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:4568] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 Once again New Zealand First notes that the bill as presented to the House in its first draft was entitled the Land Transport (Street and Illegal Drag Racing) Amendment Bill. It was interesting to read the second select committee report and to note that the second select committee which had taken on the responsibility of dealing with the bill came back to the House with the recommendation that the title be changed. I glanced through the rationale for the change of title to the Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Bill. Within that there is a further explanation not only as to why the Law and Order Committee came to that decision but also as to the part we will be debating next which is the purpose. It is after all the purpose that must be reflected in the title of the bill. 
It is quite clear to most people out there who like me own property in a part of the country where street racers gather that those races are unauthorised I own property out at McLeans Island behind the Christchurch airport and I have never ever known of an authorised drag race or burnout event there yet. The only burnouts that we have seen out there have been illegal and unauthorised and they have always resulted in damage to property and the roads. I note that that is quite clearly what this bill is designed to put an end to. 
It is interesting to read through the select committee’s report. I particularly note the discussion about clause 4 and new clause 5 on page 6 of the commentary. There was a lot of discussion about making sure that the bill did not capture legal or authorised events be they motorkhanas or legal street racing like the type of street racing we used to have here in Wellington—sadly and disappointingly Wellington does not host the V8 racing any more. Fund-raising events and sporting events that are run by legitimate car clubs and racing clubs are not intended to be caught up in this bill. The new title makes it very very clear that those people are not the people who are being targeted and the necessary amendments in the bill from that point again reinforce that provision and ensure that those legitimate legal racing events are not in any way entrapped by this legislation. 
The title could well have been changed by many people who have been subjected to the antics of hoons and street racers over the past 10 or 15 years. Some of those people have recommended to me that the bill should be called the “Boy Racers (Car Crushing) Amendment Bill”. Those people came to me with those recommendations because they have had an absolute gutsful of the antics they have had to put up with at McLeans Island. There might well have been those who had this bill not appeared would have taken the law into their own hands in which case we might have had a bill entitled the “Anti-Vigilante (Because We’re Out to Deal to the Problem on Our Own) Bill”. Those views were very very well expressed to me on numerous occasions by people who have had a gutsful of the antics of these young people. 
At the end of the day I think that common sense logic and good advice from the advisers to the select committee have produced a workable bill with a meaningful realistic targeted title and there it should stay.