Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): I am taking this call to support the Land Transport Amendment Bill in its second reading. This bill was considered by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and when this bill was going through the select committee process my observation was that there was a huge amount of interest in one particular part of this bill. That is the small passenger service industry provisions. If we look at this whole bill it is quite wide ranging. It covers provisions to minimise fare evasion to put some effective deterrents in place to reduce the incidences of fleeing drivers and to bring in alcohol interlocks to reduce drink-driving offences. It includes changes to heavy vehicle regulations and also updates regulations regarding the small passenger service industry.The select committee received 79 submissions and we had the opportunity to hear from 32 submitters. When I say that there was a huge amount of interest from the small passenger service industry that is based on the fact that out of 79 submitters 54 had something to say about the small passenger service industry provisions in this bill. I can understand this huge amount of interest in this particular part of the bill because we have thousands and thousands of people employed in this industry across New Zealand and people schools hospitals and businesses use small passenger service providers from time to time to get transported. Yes public safety and passenger safety are important but it is also important to see that our regulatory framework is providing effective measures for all operators to be in the sector and work where they have a level playing field.During the select committee process we heard about passenger endorsement calls we heard about taxi stand issues we heard about logbook and time sheet issues and many of these issues that came up during the select committee process are addressed in the land transport rules. This sector the small passenger service industry is just like any other business. Businesses want to cut their compliance costs they want to be innovative they want to adopt technology and by updating these regulations for the small passenger service industry we will be giving this opportunity for the small passenger service industry to be innovative to adopt technology and to have new ways of interacting with its customers and providing services to its customers.The other thing that I believe attracted a reasonable amount of interest was the alcohol-interlock provision in this bill and 24 submitters had something to say about alcohol interlocks. The overall view was that alcohol interlocks will prove to be an effective tool to reduce the incidences of people getting drunk and driving. This part of the bill is based on evidence. We know that alcohol interlocks will definitely reduce such incidences and there will be more use of alcohol interlocks after this legislation is passed. On fare evasion this is an issue that we thought is mostly seen in Auckland so there were several suggestions made to put more effective deterrents in place to reduce fare evasion cases.Overall there was a huge amount of suggestions so I want to thank all submitters for their contributions. I also want to acknowledge our select committee chair Jonathan Young for his leadership during the select committee process and I want to acknowledge our Minister the Hon Simon Bridges as well. This is a bill that this industry the small passenger service industry is very much looking forward to. This bill will strengthen safety and will make our land transport system more effective. I support this bill and commend this bill to the House. Thank you.