Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Defence) on behalf of the Associate Minister of Transport: I move, That the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment 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.
The reason for the truncated consideration by the select committee is because this legislation is aligning with the work of the police; they are amending their fleeing driver policy, it takes effect a little later this year.
No one in this House, whether the Minister or members opposite, get to instruct the Commissioner of Police on their utilisation of resources, or the policies they use to enforce the law. What we can do, however, is make sure that, with the power of Parliament, there are complementary laws that assist the police in achieving their objective of effective law enforcement.
When it comes to fleeing drivers, in the first reading of the bill, there's been a good indication about where there are points that the House wishes to consider. Members of the National Party want it both to be harsher—except if you're Chris Penk, who wants there to be some sort of proper respect for New Zealand Bill of Rights Act considerations. The Green Party is considerably opposed to it. The ACT Party even raised issues about the innocent vehicle owners, even if those innocent vehicle owners are obstructers of police inquiries and who are fleeing drivers.
There are some issues to consider and there's an effective time for the select committee to do that, but it is important that this law gets in place so it fully and properly complements the work of the police when they implement their new policy on fleeing drivers. On that basis, I have made this motion to the House to truncate the select committee process.
ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to.