Huo RaymondRAYMOND HUO (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. This is a good important and sensible bill. On the face of it this bill does not appear to be that heavy but this bill touches upon a very important area which has been ignored and neglected so far. The purpose of this bill—nine years of neglect—is to protect motor vehicle users from the unreasonable fees charged by some operators of immobilising devices such as wheel clamps. But the use of those devices including wheel clamps is unregulated. Many submitters such as New Zealand Automobile Association (AA) and Consumer New Zealand have long called for regulatory controls on this activity. So this bill is a positive development and will help to provide certainty for both vehicle users and car-park operators. I congratulate the Ministers: the Hon Kris Faafoi who introduced this bill and also the Hon Nanaia Mahuta who contributed a second reading speech just now. The Government is committed to protecting consumers from predatory and unreasonable behaviour and we are strengthening consumer protections across a range of different issues and areas. Parking has never been a trivial matter. Rather it is a core element of motoring and mobility. In its submission the New Zealand AA put it in a very vivid and scholarly fashion—and I quote—All vehicle journeys begin and end with a stationary car-park. Parking is critical to a functioning economy facilitating the distribution of goods and services and facilitating access to employment shopping recreation and other [fundamental and] essential activities." Results from the New Zealand AA's quarterly rolling surveys show that 7.9 percent of its members have received a parking ticket in the last six months and how many members do they have? They have 1.7 million members. So this is not an insignificant number which means a large number of its members would have had some issues with a parking ticket. Wheel clamping is particularly unpopular with AA members and I reckon with the general public as well who often find themselves in a situation that they cannot control—helpless and vulnerable—and this area is unregulated. The Transport and Infrastructure Committee received and considered 25 submissions from interested groups and individuals. I acknowledge the committee. I have only recently joined the committee and it gives me great pleasure to join my fellow committee members from the Justice Committee Matt King and Chris Bishop. We all survived from that select committee. Politicising issues can be a matter for that committee but certainly not for this committee and certainly not for this particular bill. Taking a call in this bill's second reading has given me a sense of exercising the politician's art of arriving late but claiming all the credit. I acknowledge the committee and chairperson Darroch Ball and I thank officials advisers and submitters. There were some interesting issues that the committee discussed while considering the bill.First of all signage. At the moment there are no standards and the AA is of the view that this bill could and should go a little bit further by regulating minimum signage standards for the operators of privately owned public car-parks. A common cause of this so-called unauthorised parking is due to inadequate signage. It is not fair to simply penalise those motor vehicle users simply due to inadequate signage.Secondly those penalties are harsh and to a large extent disproportionate to the offence.Thirdly for motor vehicle users—getting frustrated aside—there's no way for them to challenge the penalty and that brings us to the next point which is the legitimacy of wheel clampers. From a number of complaints we can tell that those wheel clampers are often casually dressed and in unmarked vehicles. This would have some flow-on negative effect on pretty much all law enforcement officers. Lastly the grace period. The New Zealand AA Consumer New Zealand and Wilson Parking New Zealand submitted that this bill should include a requirement for operators to apply a 10-minute grace period before applying those devices to a vehicle. I agree. Such an approach would help to protect motor vehicle users in that situation from overzealous operators.Given the practice of this sector is not regulated there is no meaningful way at all to gather sensible data. It is difficult and unfair to monitor or attend the situation and nor would it help to develop policy interventions to provide guidance or correct any market failures. This is a good bill. Thank you."