Mark Ron: Land Transport (Street and Illegal Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Mark Ron: Land Transport (Street and Illegal Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4553] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise firstly of course to express New Zealand First’s ongoing support for this bill. But first there are a couple of things that need to be done and I want to start with the credits. I congratulate the member for Waimakariri on bringing the bill to the House. It is disappointing that on an issue that was felt so passionately about by a Government member—an issue where quite clearly there was a need to act and act promptly—it had to be a member’s bill that brought the issue before the House. It is disappointing that this Government for whatever reason—I still do not understand why—did not act with the resources it had. The Government had to be pushed and prodded by one of its members a new member who had to resort to the lottery draw of a member’s bill in order to have the issue brought to the floor of the House. 
We must remind ourselves that this Government sat on that bill let it languish in the ballot for a year 18 months and then 2 years. It was not until there was a shooting in the Auckland district and the member Clayton Cosgrove got the lead item on television that the Government became embarrassed into realising that it had to do something. The question to the Prime Minister to the Deputy Prime Minster of the time Jim Anderton and to the Minister of Police George Hawkins still remains unanswered. Why did they not act on this issue the moment their colleague brought it to their caucus? Why did they wait until a young man was shot? Why did they wait until successive accidents took place and young people were killed? I can accept every word that the honourable member Clayton Cosgrove has said but it does not let those Government Ministers off the hook. They are culpable. They are responsible through their tardiness and their inability to come to grips with this issue the moment it was brought to their caucus. 
It is sad and tragic when a Government member brings an issue like this to the House and his or her bill has to go in the queue of the lottery draw before it can come before the House. It was a tragedy for the Government—and I have to say a sharp move by the shadow leader of the House—that the shadow leader of the House had to stand and seek leave for the bill to be introduced as a Government bill so that Government members were embarrassed and had to follow. 
My congratulations to the member for Waimakariri on bringing the bill to the House. My congratulations to Gerry Brownlee from Christchurch on forcing the issue here on the floor of the House and in doing so making the bill a Government bill. My congratulations also to the following people: Superintendent Dick Trimble John Sutton from the New Zealand Police Hugh Hannah and Ian James again from the New Zealand Police. I also congratulate the good assistance given to the select committee from the Australian side: Chief Superintendent Ron Sorenson Inspector Dave Evans Sergeant Craig Price and Ron Dyer all from the New South Wales Police. 
Those of us who were on the Law and Order Committee met those people. I notice from the select committee report that the names of the select committee members who saw the bill through its final stages and produced the report are mentioned. But there were a lot of other people involved because the bill took so long. It went over two terms of governance—into the second term—and had been referred to the previous Law and Order Committee. 
I have to put this on the record. I was appalled at the cheap political stunt that was pulled by the Minister over this bill when it came time for the Australian trip. An offer was made for someone on the select committee to go to New South Wales to have the opportunity to talk with the New South Wales police who enforce the Act upon which this bill is based. What happened? No one from the Government side of the select committee—and this is more evidence of those members’ total lack of support for Clayton Cosgrove—could go or wanted to go. So I was asked whether I wanted to go. I stuck up my hand and said: “Yes I’ll go.” At the same time Ken Shirley said: Hang on. If there is one seat available I want to go.” That was a fair comment. But suddenly mysteriously in the blink of an eye over a weekend the chair of the select committee who said she did not want to go who told me on the phone that she did not want to go as she had other things to do suddenly was required to go. Oh yeah? And that was all about shutting out an Opposition member from taking the opportunity to go to Australia to talk to the New South Wales police. 
Guess what happened? The upshot was that I decided I would go to Australia at my own cost. I Ron Mark the New Zealand First member on the Law and Order Committee decided that it would be a valuable trip and that I would go at my own cost. I arranged to stay in the same hotel with the team that had gone over to visit the New South Wales police; so did Ken Shirley from ACT. But here was the ripper. This one rips the nightie. When we arrived there where was the Government member? Not a sight to be seen anywhere. She did not go. If that is the way in which this Government is going to behave then God help this country. This is the way that the Government behaves on an issue that affects young people’s lives and affects families and on which there is cross-party agreement in support of the Labour member who brought the bill to the House. 
Government members played cheap political games in order to shut Opposition MPs out from an opportunity to visit the New South Wales police. But I have to say that the trip was valuable. It was worth the personal dollars I spent. The trip was at my own expense; I was not refunded. The trip gave me an insight as to how good the New South Wales law is and how it is lacking. There is a view in New Zealand that New Zealand’s traffic laws are somehow inferior to Australia’s in that respect and we found out that the Australians were looking at our laws and saying they wished they had our powers of confiscation right now. They wished they were not held responsible and accountable for the safety and security of the vehicles that they impound. They want the same system that New Zealand has whereby people are contracted to take the vehicles and the onus does not fall on the police to be responsible for securing the vehicles or to be accountable for any damage or deterioration that might occur whilst vehicles are impounded. It was a very valuable trip. 
We also met the chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Road Safety in New South Wales. We listened to numerous people from organisations such as the equivalent of the Automobile Association in New Zealand—the name has gone out of my head at the moment. Again it was a very valuable meeting. 
I reiterate that this bill has been rewritten quite substantially and it has taken some time to come to this point partly because of the political shenanigans that have been pulled and the Government’s total lack of support for Clayton Cosgrove and also in part because a very good team from the New Zealand Police and the Ministry of Transport has spent quite some considerable time making it workable and just. I congratulate the entire select committee—the Labour and National members who sat on it. I remember of course that some National members of that committee are not in Parliament any longer. I thank them all for their very good work. We will have more debate during the Committee stage on the finer details of the bill. 
I want to close on this note. I am one of those members who visited the opening of the Crossroads photographic display that Clayton Cosgrove spoke of and spoke at so well. No doubt other members went as well. I saw the fine work of the New Zealand Police particularly John Robinson and I had to walk out of the display. Those crosses reminded me of my nephew whose cross is at St Arnaud where he was killed in a motorbike accident. It was a Boxing Day death. There is one thing that we must always remember. When people are drawn into playing stupid political games and mucking around with select committee personnel over the politics of an issue they should stop and think why the member brought the bill to the House. He brought it to the House because it involves real people. He brought it to the House because it involves tragedy. He brought it to the House because he knows that the antics of young people who are out of control in this country need kerbing. I agree with him that the way to deal with those young people is to take their cars their prized possessions the things that they value more than anything else in the world. If I had my way I would crush those cars in a public crushing in Christchurch in Cathedral Square. Maybe we can work on a Supplementary Order Paper that will do that. If those young people saw their prized possession crushed after an illegal burnout at McLeans Island it might have a greater effect. 
 I congratulate the member for Waimakariri. I also congratulate the select committee and the members of the New Zealand Police and the Ministry of Transport on fine work well done. I look forward to the third reading because then I know we will definitely be on the way to enactment.