Little AndrewLAND TRANSPORT (ROAD SAFETY) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Defence) on behalf of the Associate Minister of Transport: I present a legislative statement on the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I move That the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 20 July 2023 and that the committee have authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting (except during oral questions) during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House and outside the Wellington area despite Standing Orders 193 195 and 196.This bill amends the Land Transport Act 1998 and the Sentencing Act 2002 and delivers on the Government's promise to crack down on dangerous and reckless drivers who flee police and put innocent lives at risk. Those who attempt to evade the law need to be held to account. This bill will ensure there are increased and serious consequences for this behaviour. Put simply if you flee police be prepared to lose your ride.First of all some context behind why we're taking this action: fleeing-driver events have been steadily increasing in New Zealand over the last decade. There were 9765 fleeing-driver events last year; this is up from 6757 just the year before. Already this year we've had a number of fleeing-driver events which have proved to be either injurious or fatal. In April two people fled police in Auckland and crashed into an innocent driver who was injured. In March two people were killed after the driver fled police in Wellington; two other people were injured. This behaviour raises serious safety risks to both the drivers themselves and to passengers and other road users and potentially police officers themselves. Fleeing drivers put innocent lives at risk every day. It's simply not acceptable and the Government is doing something about it by ensuring that there are serious consequences for this behaviour.Fleeing drivers often participate in other road safety offences such as dangerous driving. For example 30 percent of those charged with a first offence for failing to stop were also found to be speeding or driving dangerously. At the same time police are facing challenges identifying and apprehending fleeing drivers under current legislative and policy settings. Under the current pursuit policy police focus more on post-event investigations rather than pursuing fleeing drivers. That's a question of their safety amongst others. While this approach has saved lives it means post-event investigations are crucial for identifying drivers so they can be held to account. Police currently have the power to request that the registered owner of a vehicle—and by registered owner" I mean the person whose name appears on the registration details of the vehicle not necessarily the legal owner which can be separate. But the police have the power to request that registered owner information or that the registered owner provide information to help identify the offending driver under the Land Transport Act 1998.However there have been cases where the registered owner has not cooperated with police in providing this information. We've already seen the impact of this in the number of fleeing-driver offenders being identified. In the year prior to Police's pursuit policy change they identified on average 52 percent of all offenders. Since then police are identifying on average 34 percent of all offenders. This demonstrates the urgent need for change to ensure police have the ability to carry out appropriate action. We also want to make it clear that there will be strong penalties for anyone who decides to flee from police.This bill supports this need for change by firstly enabling police to seize and impound a vehicle for a period of six months if the officer believes on reasonable grounds that a person driving the vehicle has failed to stop; secondly creating a new power for police to seize and impound a vehicle for 28 days if the registered owner of that vehicle fails to provide information about a fleeing driver; thirdly increasing the period of driver licence disqualification after a second conviction for a failing to stop offence from one year to between one and two years; and finally creating a new sentencing option enabling the courts to order that a vehicle be forfeited on conviction for a failing to stop offence. These new tools make it clear that drivers vehicle owners or people obstructing police's work will face serious consequences if they continue their behaviour. These measures also complement the changes made by the Government earlier this year through the Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Act which expanded the range of offences where police can seize and impound cars motorbikes and other vehicles.The bill will enable the use of technology to increase the speed of enforcement and widen the ability to detect events as they occur. This bill gives effect to more of the Government's commitments in Road to Zero our road safety strategy through to 2030. In Road to Zero we proposed a new approach to safety cameras. Waka Kotahi will take over ownership and operation of the safety camera network from police and will be expanding that network to include point-to-point cameras which will calculate the average speed over a surveyed distance to detect instances where this is exceeded. Safety cameras will also be used to detect average speed distracted driving and seatbelt-related offences.International studies have shown that deaths and serious injuries have halved on roads where point-to-point speed enforcement has been installed. The effects of point-to-point speed enforcement were also found to be greater than fixed-spot speed cameras with studies in Europe showing point-to-point cameras being 50 percent more effective at reducing crashes than fixed-spot speed cameras. Research on public opinions regarding the use of point-to-point cameras suggests a high level of support. In the United Kingdom for example a survey of motorists found that 81 percent believed that average-speed cameras were fairer than fixed-speed cameras and promoted more consistent speeds.We're also introducing electronic servicing and automated issuing of infringement notices. These changes will modernise our regulatory system and make better use of technology. Electronic service of documents would include infringement notices resulting from safety camera detection of speed offences. It would also include notices to revoke driver licences due to medical grounds. Electronic service of documents enables Waka Kotahi to send documents to people quickly which provides benefits for road safety. Research from Waka Kotahi shows that early intervention significantly reduces future traffic offending. Enabling these notices to be sent by email also recognises that the way many New Zealanders receive information is changing. We know that increasingly New Zealanders' email addresses and phone numbers tend to remain unchanged for longer than their physical home addresses. Studies carried out by Statistics New Zealand in 2020 show that 40 percent of people renting from private landlords have been at their address for less than 12 months. The current reliance on a physical home address for sending notices has an effect on those who tend to move physical address on a regular basis.We're also introducing changes to enable automated issuing of infringement notices. This will mean that instead of a human issuing the infringement notices in accordance with the necessary business rules an automated process will do this but there will be appropriate safeguards in place. It's expected that this automated process will be quick accurate secure and consistent.We're acting quickly to make these changes. As I mentioned at the start of my speech I intend to move that the bill be reported back to the House on 20 July 2023. We're acting quickly to make sure police have the tools they need to address fleeing drivers when their revised pursuit policy is implemented later this year. Police are concerned about the escalating fleeing-driver numbers and the low number of offenders identified. If they don't have the necessary enforcement tools to hold offenders to account we'll continue to see an increase in high-risk driving behaviour.The additional tools in the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill are crucial to support the work that Police is doing to keep our roads safe. This bill combined with Police's revised pursuit policy will provide greater road safety outcomes and sends a strong clear warning to fleeing drivers that you are now more likely to be caught and to face greater consequences. However the bill needs to be enforced in time for the implementation of Police's revised pursuit policy to provide the greatest road safety outcomes.Average speed - related proposals will also help implement action points under Road to Zero the Government's road safety strategy. We know that this will be one of the key pillars in helping reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads. Waka Kotahi will be taking over the camera network as I said from the police later this year and have already invested in expanding that camera network in preparation.The amendments in this bill are critical for reducing unsafe behaviour to ultimately improve safety on our roads. This is legislation that was first announced at the end of last year and the Government is delivering on what it promised. The bill will enable our land transport system to make better use of technology and to ensure New Zealanders can receive information quickly and more conveniently. On that note I commend the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to."