GENERAL DEBATE: WEDNESDAY 18TH FEB.2009
…….one of the things that matters most to Christchurch people is for National to deal speedily and effectively with the boy-racer issue in our city.
It is a problem that has grown steadily over the last few years- right around the country.
It s a problem that the Labour government just refused to address.
It is a multi-faceted problem. It has three major elements, noise, speed and dangerous driving, and unlawful assembly and criminally driven pack behaviour.
All three issues need to be dealt with specifically and effectively.
Firstly, Noise-
noise underpins the whole street hoon culture.
Noise is the boy racers’s badge of honour.
It is the noise that excites,
it is noise that intimidates.
It is noise that disrupts families and businesses night after night.
Those huge chrome plated exhaust systems are “look at me” devices that serve no purpose except to advertise the presence of street hoons and intimidate and disrupt the lives of ordinary citizens.
New Zealand's noise legislation is out of date and out of sync with the rest of the world. And the recent changes under the Labour have only made it worse.
Any car that has been in NZ before June last year now no longer needs to have an exhaust system that reduces engine noise or even controls the noise level so it is “less than or similar to the original exhaust” output. Now thanks to Labour. A boy or girl racer can, as of right, add a chrome plated monster tail pipe to any car and quite legally increase the noise level up to 95 dB.
And 95 decibels can I inform the house is the level of noise one cringes from when standing half a metre away from a 4 stroke motor mower operating at full speed.
No wonder the people of Christchurch and all across the country have had enough of Labour slack noise laws.
Secondly- Speeding and dangerous driving.
Cars are lethal weapons in the wrong hands. Street racing and dangerous driving must be curbed. Too many lives have been lost too many people have been injured. I have several families in my electorate who have suffered the loss of a family member to street hoon crashes and one family whose mother is permanently and tragically disabled in a wheelchair.
When we use the Roads we all accept that there is an element of danger and some crashes are unavoidable but there is no place for deliberate dangerous driving, senseless speed, and out of control racing. The Minister for transport the Hon Stephen Joyce has promised a full review of road safety which will consider all our existing legislation and address these issues.
The final and an increasingly frightening aspect of street hoons is the unlawful assembly and criminal pack behaviour. Noisy, abusive, and dangerous pack behaviour has been gradually escalating around Christchurch city and in cities and towns throughout the country.
On Friday 31st January, Sergeant Nigel Armstrong received a call for help from a security guard who while locking up the A and P grounds for the night on the outskirts of Christchurch. He called the police because he was being pelted with bottles by a group of boy racers and he feared for his safety.
Responding immediately to the call Sergeant Armstrong arriving in his patrol car was ambushed by a group of up to 300 boy racers who attacked him with bottles and even shot at him with an air rifle. And can I remind the house that is was an air rifle that killed Sergeant Don Wilkinson last September. It was only because Sergeant Armstrong was an experienced and capable police officer that no one was killed. The group had cordoned off one lane of the street. He had to drive around the people, weaving in and out of young people and their cars to get out at the other end.
The thing that terrifies me is what would have happened if he had run over somebody or if he had been caught himself. I do not believe those young people had gone out there thinking thaty they were going to kill a police officer that night, but that is what might well have happened with that pack behaviour.
This incident has brought the whole boy racer and hoon behaviour issue to a head. The people of Christchurch are not prepared to accept this type of behaviour and neither is the National government.
The Christchurch police need new tools to manage the three aspects of street hoon/ boy racer behaviour, noise, speed and dangerous driving, and the unlawful assembly of criminal packs.
National will provide them.
…….one of the things that matters most to Christchurch people is for National to deal speedily and effectively with the boy-racer issue in our city.
It is a problem that has grown steadily over the last few years- right around the country.
It s a problem that the Labour government just refused to address.
It is a multi-faceted problem. It has three major elements, noise, speed and dangerous driving, and unlawful assembly and criminally driven pack behaviour.
All three issues need to be dealt with specifically and effectively.
Firstly, Noise-
noise underpins the whole street hoon culture.
Noise is the boy racers’s badge of honour.
It is the noise that excites,
it is noise that intimidates.
It is noise that disrupts families and businesses night after night.
Those huge chrome plated exhaust systems are “look at me” devices that serve no purpose except to advertise the presence of street hoons and intimidate and disrupt the lives of ordinary citizens.
New Zealand's noise legislation is out of date and out of sync with the rest of the world. And the recent changes under the Labour have only made it worse.
Any car that has been in NZ before June last year now no longer needs to have an exhaust system that reduces engine noise or even controls the noise level so it is “less than or similar to the original exhaust” output. Now thanks to Labour. A boy or girl racer can, as of right, add a chrome plated monster tail pipe to any car and quite legally increase the noise level up to 95 dB.
And 95 decibels can I inform the house is the level of noise one cringes from when standing half a metre away from a 4 stroke motor mower operating at full speed.
No wonder the people of Christchurch and all across the country have had enough of Labour slack noise laws.
Secondly- Speeding and dangerous driving.
Cars are lethal weapons in the wrong hands. Street racing and dangerous driving must be curbed. Too many lives have been lost too many people have been injured. I have several families in my electorate who have suffered the loss of a family member to street hoon crashes and one family whose mother is permanently and tragically disabled in a wheelchair.
When we use the Roads we all accept that there is an element of danger and some crashes are unavoidable but there is no place for deliberate dangerous driving, senseless speed, and out of control racing. The Minister for transport the Hon Stephen Joyce has promised a full review of road safety which will consider all our existing legislation and address these issues.
The final and an increasingly frightening aspect of street hoons is the unlawful assembly and criminal pack behaviour. Noisy, abusive, and dangerous pack behaviour has been gradually escalating around Christchurch city and in cities and towns throughout the country.
On Friday 31st January, Sergeant Nigel Armstrong received a call for help from a security guard who while locking up the A and P grounds for the night on the outskirts of Christchurch. He called the police because he was being pelted with bottles by a group of boy racers and he feared for his safety.
Responding immediately to the call Sergeant Armstrong arriving in his patrol car was ambushed by a group of up to 300 boy racers who attacked him with bottles and even shot at him with an air rifle. And can I remind the house that is was an air rifle that killed Sergeant Don Wilkinson last September. It was only because Sergeant Armstrong was an experienced and capable police officer that no one was killed. The group had cordoned off one lane of the street. He had to drive around the people, weaving in and out of young people and their cars to get out at the other end.
The thing that terrifies me is what would have happened if he had run over somebody or if he had been caught himself. I do not believe those young people had gone out there thinking thaty they were going to kill a police officer that night, but that is what might well have happened with that pack behaviour.
This incident has brought the whole boy racer and hoon behaviour issue to a head. The people of Christchurch are not prepared to accept this type of behaviour and neither is the National government.
The Christchurch police need new tools to manage the three aspects of street hoon/ boy racer behaviour, noise, speed and dangerous driving, and the unlawful assembly of criminal packs.
National will provide them.
