Former Transport Minister Maurice Williamson (right) and current Police Commissioner Richard Chambers (inset). Photos / NZME
Former Transport Minister Maurice Williamson (right) and current Police Commissioner Richard Chambers (inset). Photos / NZME
Former Transport Minister Maurice Williamson has admitted racking up speeding tickets in his younger days as he came to the defence of Police Commissioner Richard Chambers.
In an interview with Duncan Garner, Williamson said when he was Transport Minister, he recalled having “I think, five” speeding tickets on the books.
“I’m about to drive to Hamilton in a few minutes’ time and I can tell you that I drive on the 110[km/h] part of the motorway now, and I often find I’m well above the 110, as are the cars around me,” Williamson told Garner.
Williamson, who is now an Auckland councillor and a member of the Auckland Transport board, was commenting in the context of Chambers being caught speeding.
Chambers told recruits at a graduation ceremony this week, that he was pulled over for going 112km/h in a 100km/h zone, after returning from a police dog team graduation on November 6.
He told the recruits getting pulled over was the “dumbest thing I’ve done” as commissioner, saying he was “away with the fairies” at the time.
Speaking to Garner for his Week in Politics podcast, Williamson defended Chambers, saying he was doing a brilliant job in the midst of the Jevon McSkimming scandal.
“I think Chambers is outstanding ... and anybody who starts bringing up the fact that he got a speeding ticket, I was Minister of Transport and had, I think, five on the books at some stage for having gone over the speed limit ... in the end, just leave that stuff alone, that’s nothing to do with being a good cop or anything else.”
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers (left) said he was "away with the fairies" when he was caught speeding last week. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Williamson told the Herald his tickets were from before he was Transport Minister from 1993 to 1996, and when the speed limit was in miles per hour.
“I never got any speeding tickets when I was Transport Minister and I haven’t had any since ... I did get a few when I was a young boy at university, and they all predate my parliamentary term.”
He said on a recent trip to Hamilton he was driving with other vehicles at about 112km/h or 113km/h, and other cars were passing him.
“We are not talking about doing ridiculous speeds or outrageous speeds, but in the end, some people drive above the speed limit, but within that tolerance zone, and the police seem to allow it,” Williamson said.
He gave two examples in his Howick ward, where speed limits have been an issue – the Pakūranga Highway, where the speed limit was 50km/h, “and nobody, even the vicar on his way to church on a Sunday, drove at 50″ and the new Reeves Rd flyover that opened last month.
Williamson said when the council lifted the Pakūranga Highway speed limit to 60km/h back in the 1990s, the average speed limit travelled by cars came down. When it was 50, he said, “nobody abided by it” and when it was lifted to 60, “everyone thought that was realistic and abided by it”.
Williamson said the 50km/h speed limit on the Reeves Rd flyover was appropriate while people got used to it, and work still needed to be done on the intersection with the Pakūranga Highway.
But after 12 months or more of a settling-in period, he believed the speed limit should be increased to 60km/h “so you don’t slow down and speed up again”.
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