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Speaker 1: Now, The AA says some of our road findes need

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Speaker 1: to maybe even double what it's ticket prices for driving

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Speaker 1: offenses to rise with inflation, pointing out that they haven't

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Speaker 1: changed since the nineties. Dylan Thompson is the AA's road

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Speaker 1: safety spokesperson with US HIGH.

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Speaker 2: Dylan, Good afternoon, Heather.

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Speaker 1: Do you want to double all of them or just

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Speaker 1: some of them?

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Speaker 2: We think as a starting point, doubling all driving offenses

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Speaker 2: from where they currently are would be a good step

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Speaker 2: for the government just to effectively catch up on inflation.

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Speaker 2: And then we think that we actually need to look

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Speaker 2: at some specific offenses, the ones that show up and

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Speaker 2: crashes most often, drunk driving, drugs, driving seat belts, distractions

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Speaker 2: like cell phones, and speed, and we might actually need

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Speaker 2: to lift those even further to really try and make

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Speaker 2: people care more about sticking to the rules when they're driving.

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Speaker 1: Right, So, what's the seat belt offense? What do you

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Speaker 1: get for that.

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Speaker 2: At the moment? One hundred and fifty dollar fine?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, where would you take it to?

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Speaker 2: Well, I guess I mean if we are just going

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Speaker 2: from a starting point of doubling it to three hundred,

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Speaker 2: we think that that's a reasonable start. If we compare

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Speaker 2: that to some of the Australian fines. They sort of

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Speaker 2: range between four hundred up to one thousand dollars.

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Speaker 1: So yes, wow, okay, what about using your phone behind

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Speaker 1: the wheel? What's that of a moment?

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Speaker 2: So currently one hundred and fifty dollars as well, like

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Speaker 2: the seatbelt defense, again over in Australia, you're looking at

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Speaker 2: sort of four hundred dollars is the lowest fine in

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Speaker 2: the state, up to a bit over twelve hundred in Queensland.

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Speaker 2: So everywhere we've looked overseas has higher fines, higher penalties

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Speaker 2: than New Zealand. And we also well, I certainly know

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Speaker 2: the people in my life who have gone to Australia.

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Speaker 2: They treat driving much more seriously over there in terms

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Speaker 2: of sticking to the rules because they think that the

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Speaker 2: penalties are tough and you're likely to get caught, and

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Speaker 2: when they come back home, they don't worry so much

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Speaker 2: about being as careful, and I think that's something we've

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Speaker 2: got to change.

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Speaker 1: Have you had a look at what kind of relationship

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Speaker 1: there is between how high the fine is and how

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Speaker 1: many people actually break that rule.

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Speaker 2: We haven't in that sort of detail, So you know

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Speaker 2: what we do know is that, like I said, our

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Speaker 2: findes are lower than almost all similar countries we've looked at,

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Speaker 2: and as we also know, we have higher crash rates

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Speaker 2: than almost all similar countries out there. And we just

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Speaker 2: see this as really about changing that culture and around

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Speaker 2: driving in New Zealand. And at the moment, we don't

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Speaker 2: think that we've got penalties that actually make people think

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Speaker 2: twice about taking risks on the road.

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Speaker 1: To change with you. Now, obviously the people who stand

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Speaker 1: to benefit from this, so obviously those of us who

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Speaker 1: don't lose our lives because of stupid stuff happening on

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Speaker 1: the rule road. Also the government who get to put

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Speaker 1: this money in their pockets, are they on board with this?

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't know. This is something that we've just

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Speaker 2: recently gone out and you know, we've been in touch

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Speaker 2: with Chris Bishop's office and I'm saying, well, at the moment,

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Speaker 2: we just know that this is something that the government

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Speaker 2: said they're keen to look at about reviewing fines and penalties,

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Speaker 2: and so we've said here are some ideas that we

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Speaker 2: think you should be looking at, and now we're waiting

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Speaker 2: to get a response. But I think the thing I

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Speaker 2: just like to add is when we talk about who

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Speaker 2: benefits from this, I think actually New Zealand can really

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Speaker 2: benefit from this because the impact that crashes have on

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Speaker 2: our health system, the impact that they have on our

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Speaker 2: emergency services, and the time police and volunteer firefighters and

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Speaker 2: ambulances have to spend, you know, the impact on our courts,

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Speaker 2: all these things. If we have better behavior, a better culture,

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Speaker 2: and less crashes, that means we're going to free up

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Speaker 2: a lot of resources that are currently just dealing with

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Speaker 2: the aftermath of some accidents.

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Speaker 1: Dylan, thank you, appreciate your time. Good luck with this.

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Speaker 1: As Dylan Thompson, spokesperson for the AA, I'm on board

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Speaker 1: with this because I tend to agree with him. We aren't.

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Speaker 1: There's not enough of a disincentive financially if you get

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Speaker 1: panged looking at your phone. And I don't know if

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Speaker 1: you saw this, but a couple of days ago there

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Speaker 1: was a story about a truckie who had a crash,

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Speaker 1: was a fatal crash. In the sixteen seconds before the

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Speaker 1: crash that truck he looked at the phone ten times.

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Speaker 1: So you know, even people on the road all the

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Speaker 1: time should know better.

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Speaker 2: Don't For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live

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