Joyce joins list of MPs with convictions

Transport Minister Steven Joyce / Brett Phibbs

Confessions of criminal convictions continued in Parliament today, with Transport Minister Steven Joyce admitting to two careless driving offences.

Mr Joyce said during Parliament's first reading debate on the Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, which raises the driving age to 16 and lowers to zero the blood alcohol limit for under 20s, that "my own personal driving record has not been perfect".

"I have been fined a number of times for speeding and once for careless driving - fortunately nothing in recent times."

But Mr Joyce had suffered a memory lapse and returned to the House to make a personal statement, admitting a second conviction.

"When I spoke in my first reading speech on my own driving record, I was operating from memory.

Subsequent to that speech he had "reviewed my record from the Ministry of Justice".

"In fact, I had two convictions for careless driving within a two-year period, not one, in 1988 and 1989," he said.

The 1988 conviction was for careless driving and he was fined.

The 1989 was for careless driving causing injury, for which he was fined and lost his licence.

A spokeswoman for Mr Joyce told NZPA the minister could not remember the details of the offences.

"It was a long time ago," she said.

Mr Joyce's confession follow's yesterday's startling admission by Act MP David Garrett - the party's law and order spokesman - that he had stolen a dead baby's identity in 1984.

Mr Garrett was arrested 21 years later and discharged without conviction when the case went to court.

He told Parliament yesterday he thought at the time it was a "harmless prank" and that he had picked the idea up from the best selling novel Day of the Jackal.

Earlier this week, it emerged Mr Garrett had an assault conviction for an altercation he had in 2002 with a doctor in Tonga. He was fined $10 and maintains he was hit from behind and has been trying to appeal the conviction.

ACT leader Rodney Hide has also confessed to a criminal record, revealing this week that he was charged for being drunk at Heathrow Airport when he was a young man.

- NZPA