Turei Metiria: Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Bill — Second Reading 
Turei Metiria: Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Bill — Second Reading 
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METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party considers the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Bill to be an outrage. It is an attack on the citizenry. It is unbelievable that the public are not aware I think of how significant this legislation is and what an attack on their rights as citizens it is. People going about their ordinary business could be subject to perhaps overzealous police interest or even prejudicial police interest and could find themselves at the blunt end of the justice system having their property confiscated not on a criminal proof but on a civil-based proof without there being any conviction. They do not even need to be charged with any crime; there simply needs to be an accusation and an attack by a State service whether it is the police or the justice system and those people can have their property taken from them. The previous legislation which at least required a conviction was based on some kind of additional layer of proof that a crime had been committed. This legislation does not require any crime to be committed; none the less people can have their homes taken from them by the State. 
My former colleague Nandor Tanczos our justice spokesperson for a number of years went to the UK to talk to officials over there about very similar legislation that they had—legislation on which this bill is based. They could give him no evidence whatsoever that the legislation like this in their jurisdiction had any impact at all on offending. There was no evidence that it deterred offenders from offending. What they did say was that it acquired for the State millions and millions of dollars—that it was a massive income-generating operation by law against the citizens of that country. 
Now we will have that same law in our country. The State will be able to strip citizens of their property on a burden of civil proof where there is no conviction or even any charge laid but simply on the accusation of an overzealous police force. This is a form of double jeopardy indeed. Those who have been charged but acquitted or those who have been convicted but then had their convictions quashed will none the less still face the very severe penalty of having their property taken from them and from their families even when there is no evidence that a crime has been committed or when they have been acquitted of any crimes that they were accused of. 
It does raise the question of who the victims of this legislation will be. Will casinos—and this is an example that was raised in the past—be subject to this legislation? Given that there are reports that 45 percent of those who gamble at casinos commit crimes in order to find the money to fund their gambling addiction will casinos be considered to be acquiring property through crime? Probably not because this kind of law does not attack corporations. Lianne Dalziel mentioned white-collar criminals but they have mechanisms for protecting their assets that keep them safe for them and their families for the future. They are not the ones who will be suffering from this legislation. 
The example from England shows that low-income people are the ones who suffer from this sort of law. They are the ones who are targeted by enforcement agencies because they are easy to get to. Their property is property that they have fought for desperately and worked for desperately. They do not necessarily have any kind of conviction and they have not necessarily committed a criminal offence in order to get that property yet the State can take it from them. The poorest people in our community will be the ones who suffer from this legislation because they have the least protection via other mechanisms that the State provides. Those who benefit the most will be the ones who get away because this law is not directed at those people and law enforcement is not concerned about those people. 
This legislation is a serious attack on the rights of New Zealanders as citizens in this country. The Green Party will not support this law.