Chris Lynch: Road freight industry welcomes new roadside drug testing law

New legislation enabling random roadside drug testing has been welcomed by Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand, the peak body representing the country’s road freight industry.

The law, which passed its third reading in Parliament today, will empower Police to carry out 50,000 random roadside drug tests per year — a move seen as critical to improving road safety.

John MacDonald: Roadside drug testing? Great. Will the police cope? Mmmm

I’m sure you’ll tell me if you think I’m stuck in the past, but I reckon that with the police now being expected to do roadside drug tests —as well as everything else— I think we should bring back the old MOT. The old traffic cops.

Officially, it was known as the traffic safety service, but we all knew it as the MOT.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 30/7/24

Scrapping of 11 pages of lending regulations will make it easier for people to borrow money

When the Government’s declared its intention to reform the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA), the providers of financial mentoring services expressed concerns that vulnerable borrowers could be exposed to loan-sharks and more debt.

The CCCFA was designed to protect people from taking out loans they could not afford.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 21/5/24

A govt plane is headed for New Caledonia – here’s hoping the Kiwis stranded there get better service than the PM

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to riot-torn New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive 21/8/23

Roadside drug-testing scheme that was scrapped in March is being rejuvenated – with a $400 penalty for offenders

Three new press statements have been despatched by ministers since Point of Order last reported on how they are spending our money or otherwise affecting our lives – but just one has a dollar sign in its contents.

Alas, that dollar sign does not give a measure of the costs being heaped on taxpayers by the government’s flurry of initiatives before New Zealanders go to the polls in October.