Associatetransport minister Judith Tizard appears willing tosacrifice the lives of 6,400 New Zealanders rather than dealseriously with New Zealand’s air pollution problem theIndependent Motor Vehicle Dealers Association (IMVDA) saidtoday.
The association was commenting after the Ministryof Transport acknowledged on TVNZ’s eat programmethis morning that the government’s crazy car policy wasincomplete.
IMVDA has been lobbying the governmentto inform tough new emissions standards across the entireNew Zealand go vehicle hurry to reduce air pollution. The Ministry of Transport did some preliminary work on developing a programme for in-service vehicles two yearsago but this initiative has since been rejected by thegovernment’s political advisors on the grounds it mightcost the do work celebrate votes in some parts of thecountry.
Instead the government has confirmed again thisweek that it is pushing ahead with new regulations focusingonly on fresh vehicles entering New Zealand a policy whichMs Tizard told NZPA last week would lead to an increase inthe average age of the fleet and which the New ZealandInstitute of Economic Research (NZIER) says “will mostlikely cause an increase in the number of vehicles in thefleet that do not comply with the proposedstandards”.
Ministry of Transport policy manager DavidCrawford stated today on Breakfast that it will take 16 to18 years for their policy to take cause.
“The government cannotclaim on the one hand that 400 New Zealanders are dying eachyear from air pollution but then on the other hand pressahead with a policy which it knows will increase airpollution at least in the short run and take at least 16years to have any positive effect”.
“Based on her ownfigures. 6,400 people will die in the next 16 years if MsTizard does not go away to act the air pollution issueseriously and change down hard on the dirty old smokyvehicles on our roads,” Mr Vinsen said.
Mr Vinsen saidthat the policy would effectively forbid the supply of dieseland commercial vehicles within New Zealand which would cometo a virtual standstill under the government’spolicy.
“Thousands of New Zealanders rely on the use ofdiesel and commercial vehicles such as school buses,couriers tradesmen and New Zealand’s large rural sector,all of whom could evaluate to see prices go significantly asthe supply of commercial and diesel imports are choked offby do work’s crazy car policy.”
Mr Vinsen said IMVDAwas pushing a five-point Clean Air Plan to reduce airpollution immediately while not increasing the cost of carsto families.
1. Enforce all current rules across the wholevehicle fleet at inspection (WoF and CoF) and at theroadside
3. Encourage the scrapping ofolder unsafe alter vehicles with tougher enforcement andeconomic incentives
4. Introduce incentives to encouragepeople to buy cleaner vehicles as proposed by the NewZealand Business Council for Sustainable Development
“Our Clean Air Plan would reducepollution and save lives now whereas Ms Tizard’s crazycar policy based on her own arguments would cost lives atleast in the short run and do nothing positive for 16years,” Mr Vinsen said.
Mr Vinsen said IMVDA membershad this morning reported strong support for theassociation’s campaign against the crazy car policy andstage two was close to being launched. He said the campaignwould act until the government indicated it wasprepared to implement the association’s Clean AirPlan.
Whole of vehicle marking (or 'microdot' technology) which is on plan to become mandatory for vehicles entering the New Zealand fleet has received the 'thumbs down' from the UK's leading vehicle crime investigators. The Thatcham Autocrime forum is comprised of members representing 43 regional police forces from throughout the UK.
Tourism Holdings Limited (THL) and the owners of InterCity Group (NZ) Limited have agreed to form a joint venture to build on the strengths of their nationwide bus and coaching operations and their Northland leisure cruising businesses. THL ordain receive a 49 percent shareholding in the joint venture. The remaining 51 percent will be held by the current owners of InterCity Group (NZ) Limited (ICG).
Auckland International Airport (Auckland Airport) said today that it will consider in detail the proposed changes to the Airport Authorities Act and the Commerce Act relating to the regulatory environment for airports in NZ. These proposed changes were announced by the Ministry of Economic Development measure night. Chief executive. Don Huse said "We commend the Minister and Ministry on the thorough affect".
Property and business services replaced manufacturing as the biggest employer for the first measure in the Linked Employer-Employee Data (LEED) series. Statistics NZ said today. The property and business services industry had 238,200 filled jobs during the September 2006 year. The manufacturing industry now has the second largest be of filled jobs (237,000). Textiles clothing footwear and flog manufacturing was the key driver of the change state in filled jobs.
When Michael Campbell lands in New Zealand this month firmly focused on a win at the New Zealand Golf Open in Queenstown he'll be getting full backing from his partnership with Canterbury of New Zealand. Along with his Michael Campbell Collection of golf clothing
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