From the House by Pesi Fonua

An amendment to Tonga’s Traffic Regulations relating to fees for “licences for all private motor vehicles” and some driving licences, was passed by the House on Monday, in spite of the fact that it contained a number of ambiguities.

It will now go to the Legislature for its third reading before it becomes official.

The ambiguities occurred because when the amended regulation was presented by the Prime Minister there was an understanding that he was specifically referring to the licencing of either a motor vehicle or a warrant of fitness but not a driving licence. It got even more complicated when driving licences for other vehicles, such as heavy vehicles, taxis, and other kinds of driving licences were queried because they were not included in the regulation.

Perhaps it was the heat wave, because after the Prime Minister had offered to take the amendment back to fix it, the House decided to go ahead anyway and approve it without further clarification.

The Traffic (Amendment) Regulations 2015 was was passed by the Tongan parliament in its second reading 20-0 on 8 February.

In fact, the amendment signed by Hon. ‘Etuate Lavulavu, the former Minister of Infrastructure, stated that it had been already enforced on 1 July 2015 with the consent of Cabinet. The procedure is that regulations passed by Cabinet have to be presented to Parliament when it opens.

Tabled by PM

The amended regulation was tabled into parliament by the PM Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva, who became the new Minister for Infrastructure, and also responsible for Transport after Lavulavu lost his parliamentary seat on 29 January 2016.

The amendment offers three choices of duration for three different types of licences from one year, to three years or five years for:

• “Licence for all Private motor vehicles
•  Licence to drive public service vehicle
•  Licence to drive a motor cycle.”

But during the debate some MPs thought it was about vehicle licences or warrant of fitnesses.

When the PM gave his speech to clarify the Amendment to the Regulation there was an understanding that he was specifically referring to the licencing of either a motor vehicle or a warrant of fitness but not a driving licence.

The PM praised the amended Regulation and stressed its advantages to the people. Under the new regulation he said people could get licenses for three or five years instead of just annually. It would save them time from having to queue up for a new license every year.

“It would be cheaper, cut down on the paper work and speed up the process,” he stressed.

Traffic jams

On a different issue, the PM expressed his concern over the fact that there were too many vehicles on the road, and causing traffic jams. He said that some homes have more than one vehicle. He said that people should be encouraged to use the public transport instead.

This was a contradictory statement by the PM, because one of the visible policies that his government introduced when they came into power last year was to drop the duty on vehicles over 10 years old by 50% to make it easier for people to afford them.

It has been reported in the House by the Minister for Revenue and Customs that this new policy has resulted in a huge increase in the import of old cars and between July and December last year over 13,000 10-year-old vehicles were imported into Tonga, compared with about 700 during the same period in 2014.

Which licence?

As the debate on the amendment to the traffic regulation continued, Lord Nuku and Lord Tu’ilakepa started making references for the extension on the duration of licences, and they stressed that it should include driving licences.

The People’s Representative for Vava’u No. 16 Constituency, Samiu Vaipulu queried about licences for heavy vehicles and light vehicles, and different other kinds of driving licences.

It somehow became clear to the House that they were talking about different things and that more work needed to be done to clarify the Regulation.

Lord Nuku also raised the fact that ‘Etuate Lavulavu’s name was still under the Regulation as the Cabinet Minister who tabled it, even though he had lost his seat in Parliament. He moved for 'Etuate's name to be removed and replaced by the Prime Minister’s name.

The PM offered to take back the Regulation and he admitted that he had not properly studied it.

There was also a concern that if it went back to Cabinet, it would not come back to Parliament for another year.

However, after all the shortfalls and the ambiguities that were pointed out relating to the Regulation, the Whole House Committee voted 20-0 and passed it, to go on to the Legislature.