Media Statement
Monday, 17 August 2009

Hon Peter Dunne
MP for Ohariu
Leader of UnitedFuture

Dunne: Drink-drivers should be named and shamed

Privacy concerns that have stopped the Dominion-Post newspaper from publishing the names of drink-drivers in the Wellington region need to be overcome, UnitedFuture leader and Ohariu MP Peter Dunne said today.

“This is a backward step, and in this instance common sense tells us that drink-drivers don’t actually have a right to privacy on their conviction,” Mr Dunne, who is also Associate Health Minister with responsibility for alcohol and drug issues, said.

“Drink-drivers’ names being published in their local paper is for all intents and purposes part of the punishment – and it should remain so. It is a case where naming and shaming is utterly appropriate.

“Drink-driving costs lives and is a crime against society for the simple reason that anyone who gets behind the wheel drunk is risking the lives of anyone else who happens to be on the road.

“There has been a huge hardening up in society’s attitude to this crime over the years to the point where it is totally unacceptable – and publishing the names of convicted drink-drivers recognises that fact.

“Frankly, at a time when the Government is reviewing the way our young people access and use alcohol, this is entirely the wrong signal to send,” he said.

“I think commonsense needs to prevail here. We need to find a way forward that puts the greater good of society over the so-called privacy rights of those who commit is a serious criminal offence,” Mr Dunne said.

ENDS

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