Six months into the new driver licensing regime and after more than 1 million photo licences have been issued, we've seen a dramatic reduction in disqualified driving figures, Transport Minister Maurice Williamson announced today.

"Reported offences for driving while disqualified in the first six months of the new regime were down by 24 percent on the same period last year."

"These figures show that the tough new laws where disqualified drivers lose their cars for 28 days are working by deterring serious traffic offenders from our roads."

For the six months from May until October 1998, 6666 offences for driving while disqualified were reported, while the figure for the same period this year fell to 5060.

"The whole aim of the new regime and the introduction of the tough new roadside sanctions was to get these drivers off the roads, and six months on, we're getting the results we wanted."

"Although the figures are still too high, they show that disqualified drivers are getting the message that if they continue to offend, they'll lose their car."

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>