National Party MPs may be allowed to exercise a conscience vote if a Labour bill to lower the drink-driving blood alcohol limit is pulled from the ballot.Labour MP Darren Hughes' member's bill proposes lowering the legal blood alcohol limit from 80mg of a
National Party MPs may be allowed to exercise a conscience vote if a Labour bill to lower the drink-driving blood alcohol limit is pulled from the ballot.
Labour MP Darren Hughes’ member’s bill proposes lowering the legal blood alcohol limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood (0.08) to 50mg (0.05).
If drawn from the ballot and passed into law, the bill would effectively trump the government’s decision last month not to lower the limit and opt instead for two years of research.
Prime Minister John Key said yesterday at his post-cabinet press conference that a conscience vote on the issue was a possibility.
“I imagine it would be a conscience vote, that’s how we usually deal with drink-driving issues and I know there's a wide range of views within our caucus,” he said.
Mr Hughes told Radio NZ that his bill has the support of “Labour, the Greens, the Maori Party, United Future, the Progressives and at least one ACT MP.”
This suggests it has a good chance of passing first reading if National MPs are able to exercise a conscience vote and choose individually whether or not they support it.
Mr Hughes said in a release that the Law Commission's "wide-ranging report on alcohol left no doubt that blood alcohol limits ‘must come down.’”
A TVNZ poll released last night shows 64% of New Zealanders want the government to lower the adult blood alcohol limit, against 34% who do not want the limit lowered.
Votes on conscience votes
NBR notes that the Law Commission, as part of the same alcohol law reform project, suggested conscience voting should not be used for alcohol bills.
Law Commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer said in May last year that alcohol laws were too important to be left to a conscience vote.
“All sorts of changes can be made to a bill when a conscience vote is held because the House is in a state of free-for-all,” Sir Palmer said. “Standard party-based voting will produce laws that are more consistent and durable.”
The NZ Drug Foundation, Alcohol Healthwatch, and the NZ Police endorsed the Commission’s recommendation on conscience voting at the time.
It will be interesting to see if stances change on this issue.
Of course, Mr Hughes’ bill must first be selected from the ballot for any debate to occur. This process can take years – although controversial bills have been known to pop out of the box in a suprisingly timely fashion.
