John MacDonald: I don't like this carrot-and-stick road safety funding

I don’t like the idea of the Government dangling $72 million in front of the cops and saying to them: “You’ll get this if you test the number of drivers we want you to test for drugs and alcohol.” 

You might think it’s great that the police are being told what’s expected of them and that some of their funding depends on it. But I don’t.  

Don’t get me wrong. There are some great things about this announcement yesterday by the Transport Minister that the Government is cracking down on drunk and stoned drivers.. 

As someone who thinks we should have a zero alcohol limit for drivers, anything to try and catch the clowns who drive drunk is a good thing in my book. 

And the move to roadside testing of drivers for drugs can’t come quick enough. Especially, when you consider the carnage that has been caused by drivers high on drugs. 

Here’s a stat that proves it: In 2022 alone, 112 people died in crashes where drugs were involved. That was about 30 percent of all road deaths that year. 

So yesterday, Simeon Brown announced that the Government is going to be putting $20 million into a new roadside drug testing regime. This will happen once legislation is passed that will allow police to more easily test drivers for drugs. 

The bill is going through the select committee process and submissions are due to close shortly.  

The way the legislation is drafted at the moment, anyone who is pulled over and tests positive for drugs won’t be allowed to drive for 12 hours. Samples will be sent off to the laboratory for more sophisticated testing and, if they come back positive as well, the driver will get a fine and demerit points. 

The stoners aren’t happy. Or should I say that the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (also known as NORML) aren’t happy. Because they aren’t convinced that the technology used in roadside drug testing is accurate enough. 

Green MP Julie-Anne Genter is someone else who has reservations. She says there’s a chance that people who use cannabis legally for pain relief, for example, could get done.    

Either way, I think it’s a good thing. And once the legislation is passed, the Government will give the cops the green light and will be expecting them to do 50,000 roadside drug tests a year. 

As for the alcohol testing, the Government’s increasing the breath-testing target from 3 million tests to 3.3 million tests per year, and it wants 65 percent of alcohol breath tests to be done at your typical high-risk times for people driving drunk. 

He says the police have been a bit haphazard in recent years with breath-testing drivers and wants a more consistent approach. 

So yes, it’s great there’s going to be more roadside testing for drunk drivers and it’s brilliant there’s going to be testing for drugged-up drivers, as well. 

But, as I said before, I don’t like this “performance” element

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Morning's Podcast with John McDonald
from News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
I don't like the idea of the government dangling seventy
two million dollars in front of the cops and saying
them you'll get this if you test a number of drivers.
We want you to test for drugs and alcohol. You
might think it's great that the police are being told
what's expected of them and that some of their funding
depends on it, but I don't like it at all.
Tell you why in a second. Don't get me wrong, though.

(00:35):
Don't get me wrong right from the start. There are
some great things about this announcement yesterday by the Transport
Minister that the government is cracking down on drunk and
stoned drivers. As someone who and I've said this before,
is someone who thinks we should have a zero alcohol
limit for drivers. Anything to try and catch the clowns
who drive drunks a good thing in my book, great thing.

(00:57):
And the move to roadside testing of drivers for drugs.
That can't come quick enough either, especially when you consider
the harnage that's been caused by drivers high on drugs.
Here's a stat that proves it. In twenty twenty two alone,
one hundred and twelve people died in crashes where drugs
were involved. That was about thirty percent of all road

(01:19):
deaths that year. That was in twenty twenty two. So
yesterday Simeon Brown announced that the government's going to be
putting twenty million bucks into a new roadside drug testing regime,
which will happen, by the way, won't happen overnight. It
will happen once legislation is passed that will allow police
to more easily test drivers for drugs. And so that
the bill, that legislation is going through the select committee

(01:41):
process at the moment and submissions are due to closed
shortly sometime this month. So you know, it's not it's
not way on the horizon, but it's not overnight. But
the way the legislation is drafted at the moment, anyone
who was pulled over and who tests positive for drugs
won't be allowed to drive for twelve hours and then
the samples will be sent off to the lab for

(02:02):
more sophisticated testing and if they come back positive as well,
the driver will get fine and demerit points. The stoners
aren't happy, or should I say the National Organization for
the reform of marijuana laws, also known as normal. They're
not happy because they aren't convinced that the technology used
in roadside drug testing is accurate enough, and they reckon

(02:23):
what we're going to get is a whole lot of
innocent people pinged. But I don't agree with them. I
don't agree with that because people are only going to
get pinged if the lab test, the follow up lab
test picks up drugs in their system. Green MP Julian
Genta remember her, she's someone else who has reservations. She
reckons there's a chance that people who use cannabis legally

(02:43):
for pain relief, for example, could get done either way.
I think it's a good thing. In fact, I think
is a great thing. And once the legislation has passed,
the government will give the cops the green light and
they will be expecting the police to do fifty thousand
roadside drug tests a year. As for the alcohol testing
or the government's increasing the breath testing target from three

(03:07):
million tests to three point three million tests per year,
and it wants sixty five percent of alcohol breath tests
to be done at your typical high risk times for
people driving drunk. Say you know what, is Saturday or
Friday night, all that sort of stuff, And Simeon Brown
says the police have been a bit haphazard in recent
years with breath testing drivers. Here's what he said about

(03:27):
that to Mike a couple of hours ago.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Over the last ten years, only two of those years
have we actually seen greater than three million breath tests
actually achieved. Some years we've seen below one point five million.
We know that alcohol breast tests have an impact until
defing alcohol or drunk drivers on our roads, and so
it's really important that we have clear targets and we
see them meeting those targets on a regular basis to

(03:50):
keep New Zealanders safe on the road. So this is
about having the clear targets and making sure we're achieving
them on a regular basis rather than the volatility we've
seen in recent years.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
So, yep, it is great. It is great that there
is going to be more road side testing for drunk drivers.
It's brilliant that there's going to be testing for drunk
up drivers. Well, but as I said before, I don't
like this performance element the government's attaching to the funding
for what it's called it's road policing Investment program, So
it's telling the police that they'll only get seven seventy

(04:19):
two million of the funding out of the whole lot
seventy two million of it. They'll only get it if
they meet the government's target of three point three million
roadside alcohol tests a year and fifty thousand road side
drug tests a year. Now, I don't like it because
even though sixty five percent of the tests are to
be done at high risk times, what will do is
what will happen is will have the cops either scrambling

(04:41):
to do the other thirty five percent at times and
in places where it becomes nothing more than a box
ticking exercise, or they won't do other worthwhile stuff because
they'll be busy meeting the targets so they can get
their funding. And I reckon, I reckon it is a
slippery slope because what is to stop the government doing
the same thing with other elements of police funding. Well,

(05:02):
the answer to that question is nothing. There's nothing to
stop them. And while we know that Prime Minister is
all about KPIs and quarterly plans and you know, meeting targets,
patrolling roads and fighting crime never fits into beautifully crafted
gang charts and spreadsheets and I imagine there'll be plenty
of cops this morning who are finding this carrot and

(05:24):
stick approach to government's taking somewhat offensive.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
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