Cars relicensed at new fees before P.O. had authority

Press, 1 June 1977, Page 1

Cars relicensed at new fees before P.O. had authority

Some Post Office branches in Christchurch and elsewhere have allowed persons to relicense their cars before today under the new fee. even though it had not yet become law.

The Opposition asserted in Parliament last evening that the early relicensing was illegal. The Government had set aside normal business to pass the Transport Amendment Bill, increasing registration fees, through all its stages .yesterday. The acting national principal for motor registration (Mr E. R. McKenzie) said last evening that he would prefer not to comment on whether that practice was illegal. But he indicated it did not really matter, since the new licence would not be in effect until July 1, by which time the hew fee would be law. Mr McKenzie said there was no chance that anyone purchasing a licence for a new car — or registering a car under a change of ownership — would pay the higher fees before July 1. Even if the legislation were not passed by today, it would not be possible to purchase relicensing stickers at the old price, since they are not valid until July 1. The last-gasp effort of the Government to pass the Transport Amendment Bill through Parliament in one day, so that all the car-licensing forms sitting in Post Offices throughout New Zealand will he valid legal documents when relicensing begins this mom-

ing, gave the Opposition the chance to make political hay yesterday, writes Oliver Riddell, the Wellington reporter of “The Press.” The new fees — which will be charged from today for the licensing year beginning on July 1 — raise the cost of relicensing an existing motor vehicle from about $26 to §39.30. including third-party risk. Fees for relicensing trucks, taxis, and other vehicles have also been raised, and there are new costs for transfer of ownership which will be paid from July 1. To push the bill through the acting Prime Minister (Mr Taiboys) moved that the bill be passed through all its stages in one day, and that Parliament’s Standing Orders be so far suspended as to allow this to happen — and 140 minutes of embarrassment for the Government ensued. The Opposition objected and accused the Gove.rnof “railroading” a measure through the House, declaring that, the move was unconstitutional. The Opposition spokesman on justice, Dr A. M. Finlay (Henderson), said the Government’s reason for taking urgency — that the measure had to be passed before the new fees came into operation today — was “really a disguise to avoid the

Government being in breach of the centuries-old Bill of Rights.” He said that the new forms had been printed before the House gave its authority to the new charges and cited a case in England in which the Appeal Court had deemed illegal a Post Office attempt to get people, who had beaten by a day new charges for television licences, to pay the higher rate. The basis of the appeal was the Bill of Rights, Dr Finlay said, which deemed it illegal for the charges to be made retrospective. However, the Minister of Trade and Industry (Mr Adams-Schneider) sent the Opposition members scurrying for Hansard when he quoted a similar occasion in 1960 when the Labour Government under the leadership of the late Sir Walter Nash suspended Standing Orders to pass the Nelson Railways Authorisation Bill through all its stages. While the suspension debate continued. Government speakers repeated that the bill had be passed at once, so that there would be statutory authority for relicensing, and accused the Opposition of seeking to prevent the passage of the bill, rather than de« bating whether Standing Orders should be suspended.