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Transport Safety
Minister Harry Duynhoven is promising to take a leadership role in revisiting
a controversial law that from Monday will see up to 400 bus and taxi drivers
lose their right to transport passengers. The livelihood of
hundreds of bus and taxi drivers is being taken away as the new legislation
precluding certain criminal offenders from holding a passenger transport
licence ("P" endorsement) comes into force. The Bus and Coach
Association and Taxi Federation say many of their members will be unfairly punished.
People who have
committed rape, murder and serious assaults will not be allowed to gain the
licence. But Bus & Coach
Association deputy executive director Dave Smith said there were a number of
"fish-hooks" in the law that were clearly unfair to drivers. For example, it was
harsh that a bus driver who was convicted as a teenager for having sex with
his girlfriend a few days before her 16th birthday more than 34 years ago was
about to lose his job. The parents at the time
had found out about the couple having sex and were so angry that they pressed
for the man's conviction for having underage sexual connection. Mr Smith said
homosexuality was an illegal act about 20 years ago, and in the past
14-year-olds who committed indecent acts such as exposing themselves were
criminally prosecuted. "If they did that
today they'd go through the Youth Court system and not be convicted." Mr Duynhoven told the
Herald that he planned to revisit the legislation when Parliament reconvened
on February 7 and would consult the transport spokespeople from each party
about what changes, if any, were necessary. The select committee
responsible for drafting the law - which he was not a member of - had ignored
officials' advice on the retrospective nature of the law. "We [transport
spokespeople] will talk about some of the issues that have been exposed. I
don't think anyone realised where this was going to go." However, he said he
could not "unilaterally" determine or promise that changes to the
law be made. The Bus and Coach
Association and Taxi Federation met yesterday to discuss the law, and will
meet Mr Duynhoven next week to discuss some of the anomalies and concerns
they have. The law provides
affected drivers some grounds for appeal, but not if their convictions relate
to sexual crimes or murder. Two weeks ago the
Herald reported the case of Huntly man Raymond Totowera, who was convicted of
rape in the 1980s. A Stagecoach worker for
nine of the past 10 years, Mr Totowera said he would lose his passenger
transport licence and was therefore paying the price for his crime twice. He said it was unfair
because he had been "totally rehabilitated," was a Christian and
was a good member of the community who had not broken the law for more than
20 years. Thirty-six thousand
people in New Zealand hold passenger transport licences. |
