Young JonathanJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): I am very pleased to stand in support of the Land Transport Amendment Bill 2016. It touches on six major components. Let me just speak very briefly on the area of vehicle dimensions and mass.I was having a conversation not so long ago—maybe only a couple of weeks—with a transport operator who was running one of these 50MAX trucks which is the sort of vehicle that the previous speaker Sue Moroney was saying is dangerous on our roads. They have an extra axle. They are new-technology trucks. They carry a load that is heavier than what was the standard 44 tonnes. The transport operator's comment to me was that instead of having to do four loads—four trips—with this vehicle they could bring it right down to three. It took out a journey of that truck from Taranaki to the Waikato so there is one less truck on the road. The other thing that he said to me was that because of the heavier load that they are able to carry the trucks actually feel safer on the road. I would agree with that because I went for a ride in a ute without a load on the back and I said to the person who gave me his ute for the weekend: It's very bouncy." He said: "Yeah but wait until you get a load on it and it feels safe like a car."The point is that these vehicles are designed—Sue Moroney: Look at the research and evidence.JONATHAN YOUNG: —to be safer on the road and the evidence is—as the member opposite Sue Moroney will know and as the Ministry of Transport has informed us—that the number of kilometres travelled by transport vehicles up and down this country has increased considerably over the last decade but the number of accidents involving them has decreased by about 38 percent. That is because of better technology better roads better vehicles and just the way that they travel.What this bill is doing is addressing technology advancements in the transport sector by and large. Here in the area of transportation what we see does not just enable different dimensions but also when we do that we create better productivity for our companies and that is very important because these are the companies that are employing New Zealanders out there. If they can have better productivity and if they can shift and move freight in a better and cheaper way then not only the consumer but the producers are winners in all of this and this is a good thing for New Zealand.I want to just touch on one other area—there are a number of areas but I want to touch on the mandatory alcohol interlocks. This is a very important part of this bill. You might ask the question: how many injuries and deaths are caused by drink-drivers every year? Well drink-driving contributes significantly to vehicle crashes in New Zealand. It causes an average of 77 road deaths 436 serious injuries and 1252 minor injuries each year so this has a devastating effect on the people of New Zealand. Over the last 5 years the social costs associated with drink-driving averages over $700 million per year affecting our communities.Having mandatory alcohol interlocks is going to be a very important step forward in using technology particularly regarding areas of people who are convicted. First offenders who are 3.2 times the current blood-alcohol limit of 50 milligrams or 3.2 times the current breath-alcohol limit of 250 micrograms—these people will have a mandatory alcohol interlock placed on the vehicle. For those drink-driver offenders who are subject to mandatory alcohol and drug assessments—these are people who have had two or more drink- or drug-driving convictions within 5 years and have a limit of four times the current blood-alcohol limit or a breath-alcohol level exceeding 1000 micrograms four times the current limit—these people too will have this mandatory alcohol interlock placed on their vehicle.What an alcohol interlock does is it is a breath-testing device that is wired into the vehicle into its starting system. Before the vehicle can start the driver must blow into the device. Actually as the driver is driving along on their journey there will be random times when the interlock device will require them to breathe into it again because a lot of people would say: "Well why can't a friend just come in and breathe into this device get the car operational and then he or she can just drive off?". This is a very good system that is going to bring I think some great changes to our road statistics. It has been surmised that the mandatory alcohol interlocks for specified offenders could save 8 lives a year 43 serious injuries and 126 minor injuries. That counts in our society.No doubt we are going to have a great discussion as we open this up to the public through the select committee process. I am very happy to stand in support of some very good measures that this Government is bringing forward to this Parliament. Thank you."