At last, something I can hand on heart say is a good thing - sensible policy - an incentive for everyone to get fully licensed.
Surely, that has to be good, when you think we've got at least 40,000 unlicensed and untested drivers out there every day of the week.
If they get caught they can get fined up to a grand, a further obstacle to getting driving lessons, passing a test and being a safer, legal driver.
The research shows high-risk drivers - people without a licence - people who are drunk and people who speed cause one in three of the deaths on our roads.
No licence means no insurance - bad luck and a pile of aggro for anyone who gets hit by someone who shouldn't be driving.
I'd really applaud the idea of making it less difficult for people to get through the hurdles of getting a licence, provided we're actually putting competent, safer people on the roads.
The devil, of course, is in the detail.
And the detail of this particular package flipped my view of it on its head.
Number one: it's a tax grab.
Fees for legal drivers, fees charged to car dealers are obviously eventually passed on to car owners, they're all going up.
Minister Michael Wood reckons it'll bring in another $66 million a year which is mostly out of the pockets of higher-earning households.
And as far as making the roads safer goes, it doesn't pass the sniff test there either.
The Driving Change Network’s take is there's no incentive to get proper lessons from an instructor.
The Government hasn't been transparent about the changes and the fact is that fees are going up for people who prepare and pass their test first time.
They'll be subsidising those who don't and there's no financial incentive for them to pass, because they'll be able to keep sitting it until they do.
It'll do nothing to make our roads safer.
So believe me when I say I really want to be able to say something good about new government policy, I thought my chance had come.
Maybe next time.
Tim Dower is a New Zealand journalist who works for Newstalk ZB as a newsreader and substitutes talkback announcer. This article was first published HERE
The research shows high-risk drivers - people without a licence - people who are drunk and people who speed cause one in three of the deaths on our roads.
No licence means no insurance - bad luck and a pile of aggro for anyone who gets hit by someone who shouldn't be driving.
I'd really applaud the idea of making it less difficult for people to get through the hurdles of getting a licence, provided we're actually putting competent, safer people on the roads.
The devil, of course, is in the detail.
And the detail of this particular package flipped my view of it on its head.
Number one: it's a tax grab.
Fees for legal drivers, fees charged to car dealers are obviously eventually passed on to car owners, they're all going up.
Minister Michael Wood reckons it'll bring in another $66 million a year which is mostly out of the pockets of higher-earning households.
And as far as making the roads safer goes, it doesn't pass the sniff test there either.
The Driving Change Network’s take is there's no incentive to get proper lessons from an instructor.
The Government hasn't been transparent about the changes and the fact is that fees are going up for people who prepare and pass their test first time.
They'll be subsidising those who don't and there's no financial incentive for them to pass, because they'll be able to keep sitting it until they do.
It'll do nothing to make our roads safer.
So believe me when I say I really want to be able to say something good about new government policy, I thought my chance had come.
Maybe next time.
Tim Dower is a New Zealand journalist who works for Newstalk ZB as a newsreader and substitutes talkback announcer. This article was first published HERE
2 comments:
Somewhere a long the line it would be good if money were spent on Tiago g infrastructure too. For those that need it. Not just want. Don’t live in Auckland. In the Marlborough Sounds long established businesses are crumbling under the weight of broken closed roads and government ineptitude.
Although of course creating the myth of Amazing Auckland is a great way to concentrate people and keep them under control and limit spending elsewhere.
Maybe there should be an Auckland resident tax.
You are absolutely right Tim. How divorced from the real world is our Minister of Transport to remove all incentive from studying and practising to a level of competence, as opposed to passing someone by happenstance or, just simply as time wasters. to get rid of them? What a shortsighted, patently stupid policy.
Much like our education system when students fail, just lower the bar to make everyone look good.
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