Speech: Motor vehicle sales amendment bill
MOTOR VEHICLE SALES AMENDMENT BILL
Te Ururoa Flavell, MP for Waiariki
Tuesday 30 June 2009
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Mori Party—Waiariki)245FLAVELL, TE URUROA20:01:01Kia ora ttou. That was a very good choice of yours, Mr Assistant Speaker, if I say so myself, with no disrespect to Amy Adams. For the new members of the House, I say that on a couple of occasions in the last few years or so, I have mentioned that there is a very important link between car salespeople and politicians. I did some research on this and found that every year without fail car salespeople take up a lower ranking than politicians in the readers’ surveys on the most trusted professions.
In the Reader’s Digest survey—that is right—of the most trusted professions for 2009, car salesmen were rated 38 out of 40 professions. Only sex workers and telemarketers were rated lower. Politicians, however, scored a much more positive rating of, not as low as 38 or 39, but 37. So we did *all right.
There is another important association between politicians and car traders. I am told that the very first cars in New Zealand arrived in 1898 when a member of Parliament by the name of William McLean, who is well known in Mori circles, and an engineer by the name of Edward Seager imported two Benz from France. Under the law at the time, the cars had to be treated like traction engines, travelling at a walking pace with men ahead and behind. But to overcome the problem, William McLean sponsored a new Act of Parliament. It was called the McLean Motor Car Act 1898, if members did not know that.
The new Act specified, I say for the member’s information, a speed limit of a massive 12 miles per hour. A century later here we are. We could be considering the “Heather Roy Motor Car Act 2009”. Instead, this bill aims to promote and protect car buyers.
It is an interesting aim, one might say, in the context of the perceptions of New Zealanders in respect of the levels of trust one that can expect from the profession. My understanding is that the Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill protects car buyers in a number of ways. The bill amends the process for motor vehicle traders to renew their annual registration, making it quicker and simpler, and thereby reducing compliance costs. It adds a new obligation on trading companies to notify the registrar if a new person becomes involved in the management of the company.
TE URUROA FLAVELL245: That is right. Many of the changes proposed in the bill are to improve the operations of the Motor Vehicle Sales Act 2003. It introduced a new registration regime for car traders, and new disclosure requirements for used cars.
It also established the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal to hear consumer complaints against traders. This new bill—the “Heather Roy Act”—in effect refines the processes introduced 6 years earlier, and tries to improve upon them.
The bill requires that car market operators take reasonable steps to ensure used car traders display the consumer information notice, and, as other members have talked about, the bill removes car market operators from the definition of motor vehicle traders if they only provide a car sales venue and do not sell the car themselves.
All of these steps we hope will achieve much needed improvements to protect the safety of car buyers and increase the transparency of transactions between buyers and sellers. The Mori Party has two important points that we want to bring to the discussion. The first point is that overall the number of cars in New Zealand has dropped. New car sales have decreased in number and value, both of which impact on the car sales industry.
There has been a 28.7 percent decrease in new car sales in New Zealand between 2005 and 2008. At the levels of profit, there has been a 17.4 percent decrease in car sales value over the last year.
This means that the general age of cars used in New Zealand has declined, dropping from an average of 11.28 years in 1999 to the highest yet average of 12.55 years in 2008. Those are all relevant statistics. The need for appropriate practices and transparencies in the interactions New Zealanders will have with used car traders is, therefore, even more important, as more and more older cars come on to the market.
The consequences of the shift are obviously significant when we consider energy efficiency, as discussed in the bill debated prior to this. Newer cars are generally more efficient and emit fewer emissions due to engineering improvements. We believe, therefore, that additional consideration could be given to the introduction of a fuel efficiency emissions standards regime as part of the buying and selling of motor vehicles, particularly given that the mean age of cars in New Zealand continues to rise. We support any intervention that will improve vehicle fuel efficiencies and reduce emissions.
The policy issue that we hope officials give further thought to relates to cost-benefit arguments around new versus second-hand cars, of which Mr Harawira has many. Older vehicles tend to have higher exhaust emissions of harmful pollutants—again, the honourable member Mr Harawira is well aware of this—such as carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons.
This is partly due not only to the deterioration of the engine’s efficiencies, as we know, but also to the older technology used in the earlier engine designs. Older vehicles may also have poor efficiency and, therefore, create more greenhouse gas emissions for each kilometre travelled than similar new vehicles.
All of this needs consideration. In closing, the second big issue for the Mori Party is the removal of the requirements for private sellers to display the consumer information notice. The Mori Party questions whether this move may raise concern with safety issues in the “Heather Roy Bill”.
We will be interested to learn the views of the Minister of Consumer Affairs about this particular amendment bill, given that there is a pretty comprehensive view under way on the consumer information notice. Perhaps this amendment may be put on hold pending completion of the review. There are some important issues—despite the barracking from my colleague Hone Harawira tonight—emerging from this “Heather Roy Motor Car Bill”.
Such issues relate to transparency and the need to decrease all dependency in the face of peak oil and reduced emissions. There are substantive issues requiring further work, but despite all of that, the Mori Party will certainly support this bill through the first reading in order for that further work to be done. Kia ora ttou.