United New Zealand leader, Hon Peter Dunne, is calling for the abolition of the Land Transport Safety Authority in the wake of today's Road Safety Strategy release.

He says while the strategy contains a number of interesting ideas, it ducks the hard issues, and is therefore unlikely to lead to any significant change or improvement in road safety.

"For example, the LTSA remains unscathed, yet it has become an unnecessary waste of time and money, a bloated bureaucracy more interested in self-preservation than practical solutions."

"Its functions could be far better carried out with more common sense by the new Traffic Police and the Ministry of Transport."

"We just do not need this increasingly mad outfit putting up loony schemes costing millions of dollars and which no-one will ever take any notice of."

"In fact, given the politically correct way in which the LTSA has operated to date, I am genuinely surprised it has not yet invoked the Treaty of Waitangi to justify its approach!"

"The single best step the Government could now take to promote a sensible and credible approach to road safety is to abolish the LTSA immediately, and use the funds currently allocated to it to promote realistic and effective road safety strategies through the Police and the Ministry of Transport," Mr Dunne says.

Mr Dunne says a particular disappointment for Wellingtonians will be that the strategy makes no mention of the urgent need to build the Transmission Gully highway.

"This is the sort of issue the LTSA should be at the forefront of - instead, its silence shows how much it has lost the plot and is a further reason why it should be scrapped unceremoniously before it causes the Government any more embarrassment," he says.

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