The New Zealand Transport Agency is facing a backlog of hundreds of exemptions from vehicle safety and other rules that it has failed to publicise.
The NZTA did not gazette vehicle safety exemptions last year. Photo: 123RF
By law, the NZTA must every three months gazette all the exemptions it grants, for the likes of emissions, braking or towbar standards for cars and trucks.
But it did not do this last year.
"Due to a number of changes to key personnel and the need to prioritise action to address safety issues identified by the Regulatory Compliance Review from late 2018 and through much of 2019, Waka Kotahi has not yet gazetted exemptions issued in 2019," it said.
"While the publication of exemption data is a function relating more to administrative transparency than safety, Waka Kotahi takes this statutory responsibility seriously, and has recommenced the gazetting of exemptions."
It expects to publish the gazette notice for early 2019 shortly, and all the other exemptions issued through to this March of this year, by mid-July.