Changes today with new legislation

Press, 1 August 1987, Page 4

Changes today with new legislation

By

PETER LUKE,

political reporter For violent offenders, drivers, and trade union members today, August 1, will bring changes, as a number of important legislative changes come into effect. The most far reaching of the changes will be the Labour Relations Act, the new basis of private sector industrial relations. The act had a stormy passage through Parliament under urgency in June and has been condemned by both the Business Roundtable and the Employers’ Federation.

Trade unions have feared that the act will destroy the present national award system. To mark the act, members of the Hotel Workers’ Union, the Clerical Workers’ Union, and the Distribution Workers’ Union picketed the headquarters of the Business Roundtable in downtown Wellington yesterday.

Violent offenders will be affected by seven acts which come into effect today, after the recommendations of the Roper Report. Prison will become the mandatory sentence for those convicted of serious violent offences, punishable by two years jail or more, and the influence of alcohol or drugs will not be a mitigating factors. Parole will not be available for those convicted of a range of serious violent offences. Life imprisonment and preventive detention will mean a mimimum sentence of 10 years before parole is considered. Parole boards must now take into account the chances of further violent offences. Other changes will enable gang fortifications to be removed on application to the District Court and will increase the penalties for carrying or possessing firearms or explosives without lawful excuse and carrying a

knife in a public place. From today electronic eavesdropping on organised crime will be permitted and the new offence iof breaching bail comes into force. Three important changes affecting drivers will begin today. Professional drivers will have to record the hours they work to prevent them driving for excessive hours and putting themselves and other road users at risk through fatigue. Learner drivers will be subject to the new threestage licensing process, which the Government believes will cut down the accident rate among young drivers. The first life-time plastic licences will come into effect, although no new licences will be issued today. From Monday, however, the new licences will be issued to learner drivers and other motorists who have lost their licences. The first licence to roll off the Ministry of Transport’s computer will be in the name of Richard William Prebble. Mr Prebble, the Minister of Transport, will apparently qualify for a new licence by having lost his old booklet licence — the same licence he produced earlier this month when the new licences were unveiled.