Police Minister says drink and drive ... You'll be named, shamed

Northland drink drivers will again be named and shamed in newspapers after Police Minister Judith Collins stepped in to make police give the media lists of those convicted of drink-driving in courts.
The Northern Advocate was one of a number of newspapers around the country that had published a weekly name-and-shame list of all people convicted in Whangarei District Court of drink-driving.
However, police stopped providing the lists in May, saying a legal opinion said they might be breaching the Privacy Act by giving the lists to the media, despite all the information being on public record at the court. The newspaper received only one complaint about publishing the list - from one of the people on it.
Ms Collins stepped into the debate on Monday when she heard that the media was no longer getting the lists and the Advocate will begin printing the lists at a later date once police and the court work out how to release them.
Road safety co-ordinator for RoadSafe Northland Gillian Archer welcomed the backdown, saying the lists were an effective tool in fighting the carnage on the roads.
"There will be people on that list who will be shamed to be there and if that's something that makes them, or others, think before drink-driving then that's a good thing," she said.
"It's also very good at raising awareness of just how many people in our community are offending in this way."
She said drink-driving was an epidemic in Northland and something had to be done to try to stop it.
"It's a sad indictment on Northland that there are this many people drink driving. Some of them have all the education in the world, yet still get behind the wheel and drive drunk," she said.
"The public has the right to know who those in their community are who are prepared to drive drunk and put everybody at risk."
Ms Collins said "good on" the Advocate and others for publishing the list and she was surprised to hear police were not providing the information.
"I then asked the police at our weekly meeting how they had come to that decision. They said they had received legal advice that it could be breaching the Privacy Act," Ms Collins said.
"I then asked for a report and said if the law needs to be changed [to allow police to give media the lists] then we will. I believed my colleagues would support this public safety issue.
"Police have now found a way around this and will work with courts to come up with a common-sense solution."
The Minister said everybody convicted of a criminal offence in a court could be named in the media unless there was a suppression order and it did not make sense for police to refuse to provide the lists to media.
"Especially when it's for the purpose of having justice seen to be done through the media."
Ms Collins said anybody objecting to the lists being published with their name on it had a simple choice - "don't drink and drive".
Northland has the highest rate of recidivist drink drivers in the country.
Last year, 2308 drivers were caught behind the wheel after drinking too much with a record number of recidivist offenders. Almost a quarter - 540 - had three or more previous convictions.
In Northland, between 2003-2007, alcohol was a factor in 30 per cent of fatal and serious injury crashes, rising to 53 per cent of fatal and serious injury crashes that occurred during twilight and the hours of darkness.