MTA Congratulates Transport Minister On New Vehicle Safety Package

If Transport Minister Mark Gosche is looking for support for his just released vehicle safety package, he can count on the support of the 4,500 Motor Trade Association members throughout the country.

MTA Chief Executive Stephen Matthews is congratulating the Minister on his eleven new vehicle safety initiatives, which include more stringent border inspections for used imports, new requirements on replacement parts including air-bags and seat belts and a complete ban on using flood-damaged vehicles on New Zealand roads.

"We think the Minister has listened carefully to the advice we gave and the direction of these initiatives is a great benefit to the industry and the motoring public" says Stephen Matthews. The attack on road safety is not only pro-active, but also practical because our repairer members will have much clearer guidelines and standards to follow when repairing what has become a very diverse vehicle fleet." "The vehicle safety package recognises the increasing complexity of today’s motor vehicle and its rapidly advancing technological frontier." The high proportion of used Japanese imports on our roads has also been recognised which means ultimately the consumer will buy a better product and be safer on the road."

We will be making further recommendations to Government and we will be delighted to continue to work alongside LTSA to work through the practicalities of exactly what the new package means when a vehicle is imported or when it arrives for its Warrant of Fitness inspection.

"In the meantime every one of us who owns and drives a car can take some comfort from the Transport Ministers' thinking when it comes to safer vehicles and so a reduced road toll.”

ENDS

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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>>