Emissions standards 'far too little, far too late'

The Motor Industry Association has criticised Government proposals for exhaust emission standards for imported used vehicles.

"This is nothing but a crock of platitudes written around a political agenda to protect a section of the motor industry that continues to flood our roads with old junk," said the association's chief executive officer Perry Kerr.

"The paper is full of touchy-feely comments regarding the importance of not upsetting the used importers, and completely fails to address the fact that New Zealand is now regarded internationally as a pariah on vehicle emissions matters."

The Government paper recommends an emission standard for used imported vehicles based on the Japanese standard at the time the vehicles were made. It requests Cabinet to agree that the Ministry of Transport investigate options to test vehicles before they are certified in New Zealand to ensure that they continue to meet the emissions standards they were built to.

But the association says such a standard is 10 years old in the case of most imported four-wheel-drives and over eight years old for the average used car coming across the wharf.

"This is far too little, far too late," says Kerr. "Even for such a useless and outdated set of rules, the fact that we won't see enforcement until 2008 or 2009 will guarantee that it will be even more meaningless.

"That increasingly older used imports are protected by their original build date avoids any serious attempt to clean up the appalling exhaust pollution situation which exists in New Zealand."

"The Government seems frightened to do anything that will affect the used import trade, despite compelling evidence that the older vehicles that continue to pour into this country are doing enormous damage to our air quality and also creating a major disposal problem."

Kerr said the issue of free trade raised in defence of unrestricted imports of used cars isn't an issue.

"Bans or heavy tariffs on used vehicle imports are standard practice in other OECD countries wishing to protect their environment.

"Our officials seem blind to the fact that we are the only country in the world in which market forces are the only influence on the importation of used junk. In fact, our system encourages the importation of old diesel vehicles which have been banished from the streets of Tokyo because of their excessive exhaust pollution."

Research shows that around 400 people a year are dying in New Zealand of respiratory diseases caused by vehicle emissions, says Kerr.

"Are the lives of these people less important than the potential votes of the tens of thousands who are driving the vehicles that cause the pollution?

"This kind of backside-protecting is not a good enough reason to leave us in the third world regarding exhaust emissions and vehicle safety," he said.