Ron Mark: Zero speed limit policy not working

Every time you get a ticket or a camera notice, rejoice that the money goes to the Minister of Finance and it is not loose change, either. Photo / File

I have been accused of many things but "politicking" is a first, given a senior police commander reportedly used that word to deflect criticism of the zero speed limit tolerance policy. Being a Member of Parliament I am in a party elected to keep this Government and the organs of state honest, so yes, guilty as charged.

New Zealand First is only asking what most right thinking Kiwis know to be true. Take one Wairarapa voter who shared with me this story, I feel, will have many nodding in agreement:

"The other day we drove home from Masterton behind a cop with some erratic speed. It turned out he was checking the speed of oncoming traffic (which was quite heavy).

"On the overtaking lane by the fert works, he finally got one (the guy was not doing much over a 100km/h). Cop pulls quickly over (so I had to brake quite a bit), turns round and pursues the 'criminal'. The only danger on the road was all the way from Masterton was the cop.

"Apart from the apparent non-impact on the death toll - do we really want to live in a country where your property is not protected and we fear to use our cars because of the officially sworn-in highway men?"

I have the utmost respect for frontline police officers but they are lions led by donkeys at police headquarters.

Senior police commanders have pointed to a falling road toll to say, "Ah. There's all the proof you need that what we are doing is working."

Sorry, boys and girls, but this is OBE, or "other blighter's effort".

When I entered Parliament, in 1996, New Zealand was spending about 0.3 per cent of the nation's income on roading and the road toll in that year was 514.

In the years since, this has more than doubled starting with the coalition deal we forced on National.

If someone deserves plaudits for cutting the road toll then shake the hands of those building or improving our roads. They're the real heroes.

If we want to celebrate a falling road toll then email the companies and people who invented better seat belts, ABS, air bags and active traction control. Now common on new cars and late model imports, better cars join better roads as two major factors in cutting the road toll.

Just to reinforce this point are the more than one million vehicles on the road over what existed in the mid-1990s.

We have more people and many more vehicles but the road toll has progressively fallen.

If the speed limit is now absolute then why have passing lanes or "slow vehicle bays?" Former MP Rodney Hide is equally baffled by this rot and calculated, "at 100km/h you will have travelled 1.2km - you must allow for a car coming towards you at 100km/h".

"To pass safely you need 2.4km of clear road." As he observed, "that doesn't happen often" which is why you need to "speed up" in order to pass safely.

Yet every time you get a ticket or a camera notice rejoice that the money goes to the Minister of Finance and it is not loose change, either. In 2013, it amounted to $71 million and has been more than $100 million in the past.

If this is not "revenue generation", as we are so often told, then why then does it get swallowed up by the consolidated fund?

-Ron Mark is a New Zealand First List MP and is the party's police spokesman.

-Business and civic leaders, organisers, experts in their field and interest groups can contribute opinions. The views expressed here are the writer's personal opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz.