Editorial: Safety before saving money

There's nothing wrong with the powers that be looking to save money but when they throw out safety measures to do it, under the guise of ridding us all of "unnecessary costs and time", one has to wonder where things are headed.

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced the Government is considering changing some of our vehicle licensing rules and that six-monthly warrants of fitness may become a thing of the past. The aim, he says, it to save millions of dollars in "unnecessary costs and time for households, businesses and the government".

Do they think we'll just be so grateful to have a few extra dollars in our bank accounts we won't register the safety risks or notice the job losses and lost business that will inevitably result?

Those working in Rotorua's automotive industry, as we report today, are rightly concerned, warning all that will happen is we'll have more unsafe cars on our roads. They say about half the cars on our roads are more than 12 years old.

How about simply reducing the fee charged for warrants of fitness? That would also save households, businesses and the government money.

Apparently we Kiwis get our cars checked more frequently than motorists in most of the rest of the developed world.

Just because the rest of the world does something differently, doesn't mean we don't have the right system in place for New Zealanders and New Zealand conditions. The Government can't use the excuse that we should be following world trends. We often don't. Many countries have, for instance, banned the use of 1080 poison but we still use it.

Decision makers can justify just about anything when it comes down to it. But when we hear from Vehicle Testing New Zealand that up to 30 per cent of all vehicles it checks fail their first inspection, it's hard to see how the Government could justify getting rid of regular warrant checks.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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