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People on benefits, students and superannuitants will be between $2 and $10 better off each week from tomorrow.
Benefit payments, student allowances, New Zealand superannuation/veterans pension and community services card thresholds all increase from 1 April as part of the annual cost of living adjustment.
With the increase in payments, the income thresholds for Community Services Card holders will also increase. This means that no cardholders will lose their entitlement to the card and an additional 37,000 New Zealanders who have not been able to use the card will now be eligible.
Examples of the increases in the after tax weekly rates are:
- for a single unemployed person aged 20 to 24 years, up $3.57 to $134.70;
- for a married couple on the unemployment benefit with no children, up $7.14 to $269.40;
- for a single person over 18 receiving the invalids benefit, up $5.35 to $202.05;
- for a sole parent with one child, receiving the domestic purposes benefit, up $6.13 to $231.53;
- for a married couple who both qualify for NZ superannuation, up $10 to $377.38;
- for a single person (18-19 years) living at home, receiving the unemployment benefit, up $2.85 to $107.76.
The new Community Service Card thresholds now range from $19,439 to $51,022 a year.
Councils and Transit New Zealand will be able to change speed limits in their areas under a new rule signed by Transport Minister Paul Swain.
Under the Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2003 councils will be able to set 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 100kmh speed limits on stretches of road and Transit NZ will be able to change speed limits on the state highway network.
But the rule does not allow any increase to the existing maximum limit of 100kmh on rural roads and motorways.
The changes have come in response to approaches from local authorities, who have sought more control over setting speed limits on their roads.
Among their new powers, councils will be able to reduce the speed limit past schools if they believe the existing conditions are unsafe, by making a variable speed limit bylaw. This would require drivers to reduce their speed outside a school during the peak arrival and leaving times of school children.
There has been some criticism of this on talkback radio with some people being concerned that it will be confusing for drivers. This system has been in place in Australia for several years with no problems and I'm sure that if the Aussies can work it out, we Kiwis will have no problems.
Anything that makes children's passage to school safer is worthwhile.
A couple of points worth noting are the rule does not change the enforcement and fines imposed on road users who break speed limits and the rule will be fully implemented in about a year giving councils a reasonable lead-in time to prepare for the rule change.
For further information visit the LTSA website at www.ltsa.govt.nz, or contact the LTSA Help Desk on 0800 699 000. Copies of the rule can be accessed on the internet at www.status.co.nz/ltsa.html or from a bookshop that sells government publications.
Unco-operative dog owners, judicial leniency and inadequate search and seizure powers have all been identified by councils as impediments to effective dog control in a report published by Local Government Minister Chris Carter.
The report details findings from a survey of councils ordered as part of a review of dog control laws in February after a spate of particularly vicious dog attacks.
Responses to the survey were received from 71 of the 74 councils around the country at the end of last month and those responses and the statistical data accompanying them have been analysed over the past two weeks.
Some of the problems identified can be fixed by legislative change, some by dog owners acting responsibly, some by councils actively enforcing, and some by the courts taking dog attacks more seriously.
Key findings in the report are:
- 39 percent of people needing hospital treatment after dog attacks are children under 10 years - disproportionately high relative to the total population.
- The total number of dog attacks seems to have declined since 1999/2000.
- Not much information is collected by councils on attacks by specific breeds but what is available shows those most commonly identified in attacks are: staffordshire bull terriers, german shepherds, labradors, bull terriers, rottweilers, pit bull terriers.
- Most councils identified irresponsible dog owners as the biggest dog control problem, followed by enforcement, legislative provisions, and the courts.
- Councils raised concerns about the legal power to seize dangerous or unregistered dogs on private property, but said the law was adequate in many other ways.
- Court prosecutions for offences under Section 57 (dogs attacking persons or animals or rushing at vehicles) of the Dog Control Act have more than halved between 1997 and 2001.
- At the same time, the average fine imposed by the courts under this section rose from $234 to $300, when the maximum fine was $1500.
- The average fine in 2000 and 2001 under section 58 of the Act (dogs causing serious injury) was $475, when the maximum fine was $5000. Only one person has been imprisoned under this section in five years.
- There is a real need for a standardised system of recording dog attacks because many councils are not keeping even basic statistics.
Copies of the report can be downloaded from the Department of Internal Affairs website: www.dia.govt.nz
Last week Wairarapa again hosted a vast array of balloons for the annual fiesta and on Friday I was honoured to open the new Community Centre in Dixon Street. It is a wonderful arrangement where many community-based agencies are all housed under one roof and my thanks to all who have made it possible.
I was also happy to meet up with a group of Chanel College students who were visiting Parliament on Wednesday. I hope they enjoyed their trip.
Finally things were busy in the House last week, with the committee stage of the Prostitution Reform Bill and the continuing war with Iraq.
My thoughts are with all people who are experiencing hostilities throughout the world and I'm sure we are all hoping for a swift conclusion to the latest conflict.
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