Gareth Hughes

Labour Transport spokesperson Darren Hughes says he is sick of Transport Minister Steven Joyce's pious claptrap about introducing tougher penalties for drink drivers when National is still happy to let people get drunk before they make up their minds whether they can drive safely or not.

"Steven Joyce, commenting today on the case of a man jailed for four years for killing a woman while driving drunk and disqualified, trotted out the same old excuses for failing to take decisive action," Darren Hughes said.

"He says what he always says --- that tougher penalties are about to be introduced --- but he misses the point completely.

"What he doesn't say is that if the blood alcohol limit isn't reduced from 0.08g of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 0.05g, then some people will always be too drunk to make a rational decision before getting behind the steering wheel."

Darren Hughes said he was bitterly disappointed that Steven Joyce was still not prepared to take a bipartisan approach to his bill to lower the alcohol limit.

"Innocent people will continue to be killed on our roads by drinking drivers while Steven Joyce and his National cabinet colleagues say they can't make up their minds about lowering the limit before two years' research is done.

"This is a shameful dereliction of his responsibility," Darren Hughes said.

"He has the opportunity to take a really decisive step with bipartisan support, but he won't take it.

"Instead he seems to hope that somehow tougher penalties will make drunk people think twice before driving.

"Sadly, far too often, drunks don't think."