KEY POINTS:
Parliament appears to favour raising the driving age and a bill that puts it up from 15 to 16 passed its first reading tonight without dissent.
It still has to be considered by a select committee and go through three more stages before it becomes law, but during the first reading debate only one MP voiced serious concerns about it.
The bill raises the minimum driver licensing age from 15 to 16 and extends the length of the learner licensing period from six months to 12 months.
United Future leader Peter Dunne drafted the bill and said its effect would be to raise the age for a full licence from 17 to 18 years six months.
He told Parliament recent statistics showed young drivers were in particular danger on the roads shortly after they got their restricted, or solo driver, licences.
Mr Dunne said the number of crashes in the first month after gaining a restricted licence compared to the last month on a learner's licence increased 2.5 times for 18 and 19-year-olds, 4.5 times for 17-year-olds, eight times for 16-year-olds and 10 times for 15-year-olds.
"What that clearly shows is that the younger a driver gets a restricted licence, the higher the chance that they will crash," he said.
"That is the point of this legislation."
Mr Dunne said Britain was considering raising its driving age from 17 to 18 to align it with other European countries and in Australian states people could not get on the roads until they were 16 or 17.
"We have the fourth highest road death rate for 15 and 16-year-olds in the world," he said.
"The logic of making this change is compelling and overwhelming."
Mr Dunne said the age had been set at 15 when the school leaving age was 15, but it had been increased to 16.
He said he understood there would be concerns in rural areas because of the need for young people to drive on roads that joined different parts of farms but he thought the transport select committee could find ways to help with that.
National's transport spokesman, Maurice Williamson, said he tried to raise the age to 16 when he was Minister of Transport in 1998.
"It failed at the last hurdle when the urban/rural divide kicked in," he said.
"I think 15 is too young to drive."
Mr Williamson said it should be aligned with the school leaving age and MPs should consider the situation in other countries.
In Queensland, where rural areas were vast, the driving age was 17.
Mr Williamson urged MPs not to be influenced by any "hysteria" that might surround Mr Dunne's bill.
Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven said the bill had arrived at the right time and the Government was working on a package of measures designed to address the problem of crashes involving young drivers.
"Young people far too often pay too high a price for the right to drive," he said.
"We need a range of measures...strengthening the testing regime is one."
New Zealand First's Peter Brown was a strong supporter.
"The public want the driving age raised," he said.
"It should be tagged to the school leaving age. Driving should be a privilege, not a right."
Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said not all members of her caucus were happy with the bill but they all agreed it should go to a select committee for public submissions.
"It's hard to argue it won't lower serious accidents and deaths," she said.
Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell said that in the last five years 22 per cent of fatal accidents had involved Maori.
"We need to do something and this bill is a good way to start."
Mr Flavell thought speeding and drinking were a big problem with young drivers.
"There seems to be a tolerance of speeding, and this bill doesn't address the problems of speeding and drinking," he said.
National's Hamilton East MP David Bennett disagreed with the other speakers.
"Raising the age is just a political attempt to get some kind of thing that you can go out and sell," he said.
"It doesn't necessarily solve the problem, because the problem will move. If you change the age to 16, you are taking the chance that the 16-year-olds will be the highest percentage of victims."
Mr Bennett said the real issue was young drivers breaking the rules - drinking, speeding and driving outside the hours they were allowed to drive.
The Land Transport (Driver Licensing) Amendment Bill passed its first reading on a voice vote and has been sent to the transport select committee.
- NZPA
