Kedgley Sue: Land Transport Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Land Transport Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:14288] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 This is yet another bill—we have had a number of them today—on which there seems to be total support and consensus in the House. Indeed I would say that seldom have we seen a bill full of so many good ideas and common-sense suggestions and which I am sure would have the support of almost all New Zealanders. I am sure that New Zealanders would be delighted to know that we will target serious traffic offenders by reducing the speed and alcohol thresholds for immediate driver’s-licence suspension. It is a particularly good idea that we will require repeat drink-drivers to attend drug and alcohol assessment centres. 
I say in parentheses that it was interesting that the New Zealand First representative had barely finished attacking United Future saying how annoyed New Zealand First members were with United Future and how tired they were of United Future’s attacks when he proceeded to make totally incorrect ill-founded stupid attacks on the Green Party. That is exactly the sort of behaviour that brings the House into disrepute. Someone goes on and on about how terrible it is that he or she is being attacked then turns round and makes exactly the same sort of idiotic attacks as he or she has been complaining about. 
And for the record arguing that people should not go to jail for smoking cannabis but rather should attend assessment centres as is proposed in this bill and that we should be focusing on harm minimisation is not advocating for persons to smoke cannabis. Frankly we are getting very very tired of those pitiful little attacks from United Future and New Zealand First—just as New Zealand First members say they are getting tired of attacks on them. Let me just set the record straight there. 
All the suggestions in this bill are basically aimed at trying to reduce speed and driving while under the influence of 
alcohol which as the Minister said are the causes of so many accidents. This bill seeks to address the underlying causes of the road toll. I am sure that everyone will support it; I am sure that all New Zealanders will support it. It is so full of good ideas that we wonder why we did not have most of the proposals in it on our law books many decades or years ago. 
The only thing I would say in conclusion is that the Minister of Transport talked about a proposal by United Future to put in legislation forbidding excessive noise from vehicles. I think that is targeted at boy racers who have radios on while they drive around. I suggest that surely the House has more important things to talk about than trying to prohibit the few people who drive around making a loud noise. Is this a serious problem? What is the problem we are trying to find a solution to here? That proposal is really a case of going overboard. There is not a huge problem and frankly that sort of excessive regulation is unnecessary. 
Anyway that is not included in this excellent set of amendments. We are delighted to support them and we will be active in the select committee in considering the proposals. I think that most of the submissions will be totally in support of the bill and that New Zealanders will say we should get on and get them enacted as soon as possible.