Hughes Gareth: Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hughes Gareth: Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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GARETH HUGHES (Green) 
: 
 Kia ora. Nga mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora. I rise to take a call on Part 1 of the Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I look forward to taking a few calls on this bill. I acknowledge the contribution we have just heard from the Minister in the chair the Minister of Transport. In general I agree with what he has said about road safety. We have a problem in New Zealand and we need to do something about it. It has been a longstanding problem. We have improved somewhat over the last several decades but we still need to do more. 
I agree with large chunks of this bill. When it comes to changes to the powers of parking wardens to alcohol interlocks and to procedural rules for the New Zealand Transport Agency I think that stuff is all great. Clearly the big issue the bill addresses is alcohol and when looking at the issue of alcohol this bill cannot be taken in isolation. We have a national cultural drinking problem. It is not just a problem of alcohol on the roads; New Zealand has a wider cultural problem. 
Unfortunately this bill is not doing the single most effective thing that could be done to deal with alcohol on the road. Likewise with the Alcohol Reform Bill we are simply targeting young drinkers with changes to the legal drinking age. We are not looking at the broader cultural problems. We are not addressing the massive amounts of alcohol advertising we have changes to hours or ready-to-drinks; we are simply looking at youth stereotyping. 
Likewise with the Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill the focus is on young drivers. I acknowledge the work that Miss Fenton has done with her amendments but the Green Party will not be voting for them. 
As the former youngest member of Parliament—I acknowledge Jami-Lee Ross who was just here—I wanted to oppose this bill. Getting my licence at 15 years old was an important part of my journey to adult life as I know it is for lots of young people. Because of the terrible state of our public transport in many our provincial and rural towns young people do not have options. We in this Committee may be surprised but many 15-year-olds provide income to their whanau. They are out working hard and they need to get to work somehow. 
This was a challenge for me and my caucus to discuss but we looked at the evidence and I think it is pretty compelling. Australia has a 60 percent lower accident rate for the same age bracket. We support the raising of the minimum driving age to 16 years old. We support further initiatives when it comes to driver training. I note that in Germany it costs around €2000 to €4000 I understand to get a driver’s licence. Although I do not advocate for that in this Chamber I think we should strengthen driver training. 
Clearly the main thing we need to do for young people between the ages of 15 and 16 who will not be able to drive is to give them better public transport. Unfortunately that is not happening under this Government. 
The Greens support the lowering of the blood-alcohol limit for under-20-year-olds but we think this should be done only in conjunction with the general lowering of the blood-alcohol limit for adults. There are two issues here. There is the transition: someone who is almost 20 can have only 0.03 grams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood yet a day later on their birthday they can go all the way up to 0.08 grams which is totally outside the bounds of the OECD average. New Zealand is an international outlier when it comes to this limit. There will be transition problems and I acknowledge that. 
There is also an issue of consistency: the blood-alcohol limit for young people should be the same as the limit for adults. We are sending the wrong message. We are sending young drivers the message that we do not trust them with alcohol when in fact the problem is a broader cultural problem. It is the same with the Alcohol Reform Bill. Ninety-two percent of our problem drinkers in New Zealand are over the age of 30. We cannot stereotype young drivers. We acknowledge that there is work to be done here; enough will be said about the 0.05 limit today. 
I challenge a couple of the comments made by the Minister. He said there is not enough evidence. I understand that 300 international reports show this evidence. The experts and the people who produce Safer Journeys were pretty compelling in their argument that we could save between 15 and 33 lives. I do not believe that the New Zealand Transport Agency plucked those numbers out of thin air. There is an evidential basis for lowering the blood-alcohol limit. We are simply moving into line. Lowering the limit is not going out on a limb; it is simply moving into the OECD average. It is simply listening to the World Health Organization which is the expert. 
The proposal to lower the blood-alcohol limit is clearly popular. We have had a public consciousness shift over the last couple of decades when it comes to the drinking level. We are missing the opportunity to lower the blood-alcohol limit. The bill is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We have the public behind us we have the evidence behind us and we have the desire. I do not know why the Minister did not advocate in his Cabinet for lowering the blood-alcohol limit. I thought the Minister was going to advocate for lowering the blood-alcohol limit after the work he did in the media around his wine consumption and driving. What happened in Cabinet? I would love for the Minister to take a call.