Minister recalls more details

Steven Joyce hopes the incident will not hurt his standing with the public. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Transport Minister Steven Joyce has revealed further details of the 1989 incident that led to a conviction for careless driving causing injury, and says the speed of the bike he collided with was an issue in the accident.

Mr Joyce revealed his two convictions for driving offences on Thursday during Parliament's debate on legislation that raises the driving age to 16 and lowers to zero the blood-alcohol limit for those under 20.

In 1989 Mr Joyce was convicted of careless driving causing injury after a collision between his Holden Barina and a motorcycle. He was fined and lost his licence.

He said yesterday that the pillion passenger was treated in hospital for a leg injury. The accident happened at night when he was reversing out of his driveway, "and I didn't see the motorbike".

"There were some other issues around the accident in terms of the speed of the other vehicle ... but I don't want to go into that, it's a long time ago and it's pointless to relitigate it."

He did not recall either the amount of the fine or the period of disqualification.

Mr Joyce said he hoped the public would not see the incident as reflecting poorly on his standing as Transport Minister.

"It was a long time ago ... I've kept a pretty clean driving record since then ... I've had some speeding tickets as most people have."

Mr Joyce said reports of Act MP David Garrett's historical offences were "not really" a factor in disclosing his convictions, it was more to do with the transport bill.