Twyford PhilHon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Transport): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I'm very happy to be here today supporting the Hon Kris Faafoi the Minister responsible for bringing this bill to the House. Wheel clamping has been the scourge of so many of our communities and predatory behaviour by the wheel-clamping companies has made life a misery. It's driven shoppers away from retail centres it's created untold hardship for people who have fallen foul of the wheel clampers and this bill sets out to fix that problem.Clamping of course involves sticking a big metal device that immobilises the vehicle by stopping the wheels from turning. This industry is completely unregulated at the moment and that's the problem here—it's unregulated; cowboy clamping firms have basically been free to charge whatever they like. There are no rules there are no regulations and communities like Henderson in west Auckland that I represent have suffered because of this. In fact their retail centres have been damaged their reputations sullied by the behaviour of these clamping companies. Not only is this so-called industry unregulated but it's meant that the clamping companies have been able to charge totally unreasonable fees for the release of the vehicle. It's basically a kind of extortion and the law is completely unclear. The common law doesn't help much in determining what fees would be reasonable. So there are no incentives or very few incentives for clampers to behave in a reasonable way.Now after much public debate and campaigning and reports by programmes like Fair Go and other news media the former Government put in place a code of conduct in 2012. If my memory serves me correctly it was the Hon Simon Bridges who was the Minister at the time who brought in this voluntary code of conduct. Well it's very clear that this kind of light-handed regulatory touch in this instance has completely failed. It didn't do the job that the former Government hoped that it would. Clamping has continued for the last six years to be a curse on so many of our communities who have been subject to this kind of predatory behaviour. Some people have been charged as much as $700 to have the clamp removed from the wheel of their car. In my view this bill strikes the right balance and it will put an end to the predatory and aggressive behaviour that's been a feature of this industry.I want to recall for the House a situation that one of my constituents experienced in Henderson in west Auckland in September 2015. A young woman by the name of Ausky Vailalo—her car broke down in a retail car park in Henderson. She phoned her brother to come and collect her one-year-old son who was in the car with her at the time and she waited in the family car for roadside assistance. Her brother turned up and parked in a nearby business car-park because the public area where Ausky was waiting was completely full. It was pouring with rain and Ausky's brother left his car and walked over to Ausky's car and in the minute that he did that in the pouring rain to try and rescue his sister and her one-year-old child the wheel clamper pounced and put the clamp on his car and demanded $200 for the release of that car. The distress that Ausky and her child were put through on that day was completely out of proportion to what had happened and is not atypical of these kinds of situations.Only in the last two weeks another constituent contacted me Terrence Edwards who told me of a similar story actually with the same clamping company. His wife Cornelia four months pregnant parked in an area—actually I think in the same parking area. She stopped in to drop some children's books back to the library. The wheel clamper was in the car when she pulled up. She went across to the library only 30 metres or so away and in the couple of minutes while she was away they clamped the car. She rang her husband in a distressed state. He tried to talk to the wheel clamper who was aggressive and indifferent to the plight of Cornelia. They demanded $200 within 90 minutes or they would face an additional $200 fee. This kind of predatory aggressive behaviour is totally out of proportion to the enforcement of private property rights that I think most of us would agree is part and parcel of regulating private parking in our urban centres.This bill which proposes that the fees for clamping for the release of a car that's been clamped be restricted to a maximum of $100 for release tries to strike the right balance. It recognises that people who own car-parks have a right to be able to ensure that people don't park in them when they're not entitled to but it tries to ensure that shoppers who fall foul of that restriction either by accident or deliberately are not subject to unduly onerous charges.The previous Government did nothing about this other than a voluntary code of conduct. We said at the time that that was inadequate and I think that history has proved that we're right. We do acknowledge that there is a legitimate need for the owners of parking spaces to be able to manage the use of those private parking places but this bill tries to strike the right balance.Let me run through some of the provisions in the bill. The person who is clamping cannot charge more than the maximum amount for a parking breach on private land that requires the removal of the wheel clamp. That maximum amount is $100 inclusive of GST. The breach of that $100 maximum is an infringement offence attracting up to $1000 for an individual and $5000 for a company and if it goes to court it is a fine of up to $3000 for an individual and up to $15000 for a company. If a wheel clamp operator has breached the maximum fee motorists will have the right to recover payments made in excess of that maximum through the normal processes and that's likely to be the disputes tribunal. The bill states that the police will be the enforcement agency for these provisions. It also requires that a wheel clamp operator must remove a wheel clamp as soon as is reasonably practicable after the fee is paid or on request of the motorist if no fee is charged. If the wheel clamper fails to remove the clamp as soon as is reasonably practicable the motorist may remove or arrange the removal of the clamp and will be immune from any civil or criminal liability. So this bill sets out to right a wrong. It sets out to protect shoppers and people who may fall foul of the wheel clampers who are acting on behalf of the owners of private property. It aims I think to somewhat level the playing field between the wheel-clamping industry and the towing industry which is regulated and has licensing provisions a fit and proper person test and a number of other provisions in the transport rules. My hope is that this bill will restore a situation where people using our town centres and our shopping centres will no longer be subject to this kind of predatory behaviour. I'm glad to hear that the National Opposition is supporting this bill to select committee and I look forward to seeing what kind of scrutiny the select committee will bring to this bill and how they may be able to improve it. Thank you.