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Confessions of court convictions continued in Parliament yesterday, when Transport Minister Steven Joyce admitted two careless-driving offences, including one involving an injury to a motorcyclist.
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," Mr Joyce said.
The 1988 conviction was for careless driving and he was fined.
The 1989 one was for careless driving causing injury, for which he was fined and lost his licence.
Both offences occurred in New Plymouth, a spokeswoman for Mr Joyce confirmed.
She said the second offence was for an incident at night involved a motorcyclist who suffered a leg injury.
However, Mr Joyce could not recall whether the motorcyclist was admitted to hospital.
"It was a long time ago," his spokeswoman said.
Mr Joyce's confession follows Wednesday's startling admission by Act list MP David Garrett - the party's law and order spokesman - that he had stolen a dead baby's identity in 1984 and used it to get a passport.
Herald inquiries showed that none of Parliament's other law and order or justice spokespeople had any significant offences on their records.
Neither Justice Minister Simon Power nor Police and Corrections Minister Judith Collins had any convictions or court appearances.
Greens justice spokesman Kennedy Graham had nothing more serious on his record than speeding and parking tickets.
Act Party leader Rodney Hide, the MP for Epsom, this week revealed that he had been charged with being drunk at Heathrow Airport in London when he was a young man.
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NZPA
