Do as we say, not as we do.  An insight into how quickly our ministers get around. By Felix Marwick.

It’s been 12 years since former Prime Minister Helen Clark hit the headlines over her swift dash in her Crown Limousine from Waimate to Christchurch, as she sought to make it to a rugby match.

The incident, that saw police officers and the car’s driver charged, spilled over into 2005 and even spilled over into the 2005 election campaign. Given the angst it caused, both politically and judicially, you’d think those responsible for the Government’s VIP transport service might have learnt a thing or two.

It appears they haven’t.

A 10 month battle with Ministerial Services for access to the GPS data of the Crown cars has finally reached a resolution thanks to the intervention of the Office of the Ombudsmen. What can now be revealed for the public record is some of the driving habits of the Crown cars for the first seven months of last year. To say it makes for an interesting read is a major understatement. When it comes to getting from A to B, ministers are getting there pretty swiftly and not always legally.

According to the numbers (and I have 65 pages of them covering a seven month period) there were 3,889 occasions between January the 1st and July 31st where the GPS units in the Crown cars recorded speeds in excess of the open road speed limit. That works out as an average of around 138 times a week. No matter what way you look at it, it’s a lot of speeding.

And while a lot of the data shows speeds of 105-110 km/h, there are also some disturbingly high readings. There’s one trip from January of last year where a Crown car has recorded speeds of 121 to 200 km/h on a trip in Wellington. Another trip in March from Auckland to Northland shows the driver consistently exceeded the speed limit over a three to four hour period with speeds up to 130 km/h recorded. Similar incidents can be seen throughout the material released.

What’s added some extra spice to this story is that we also requested, under the Official Information Act, records of speeding tickets received by the VIP fleet over the same seven month period. The details released showed 13 tickets had been issued in that time. However all were on urban roads where speed limits were 50-80 km/h. Not a single speeding ticket was issued for a single Crown car for travelling in excess of the open road speed limit. Let’s just consider that, not a single one.

This is mind boggling stuff. It beggars belief that the cars’ own GPS data record thousands of incidences where the open road speed limit has been broken, but that the police haven’t caught them doing it. Not once. So either the Crown cars are painted with some sort of radical radar defeating technology or, the police have been making a conscious decision not to enforce the law where the Crown cars are concerned.

Given the fallout from the 2004 motorcade scandal I think it’s pretty self-evident what is going on.

Those in charge of the vehicles say they don’t have faith in a lot of the data they’ve provided, intimating they believe some of it, if not a lot of it, is inaccurate. However there is an acceptance that it can’t all be wrong and the drivers of the cars are being reminded of their obligations to obey speed limits.

I’d like to point out this story isn’t a dig at the drivers, although they’re ultimately the ones that bear responsibility for their actions. But it has to be said that, given the road safety measures, particularly those promoted to the public about speeding, the last things Ministers of the Crown should be doing is speeding in their work cars (even if someone else is driving). There is a strong current of resentment amongst the public in the way police ticket speeding drivers. If we have to pay for our speeding sins then the least those in charge of the country should do, is do the same – and be seen to be doing the same.

The reluctance of authorities to release this information suggests they realise the message it sends; do as we say, not as we do. The fact that speeding tickets handed out to Ministers for the self-drive cars still remain off-limits to the public further reinforces this fact.