Collins Judith: General Debate 
Collins Judith: General Debate 
[Volume:654;Page:3865] 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. Earlier this year when a lone police sergeant was lured into a trap by 300 illegal street racers and their supporters we saw in New Zealand an extraordinarily ugly side of illegal street-racing activities. We saw a truly criminal element. The fact that those people attempted to get the police officer out of his car and that his life was endangered showed this Government that it needed to act and that it needed to act quickly. So I thank the Prime Minister the Minister of Transport and my colleagues for the support they have given to the illegal street racing legislation. 
New Zealanders were told by the previous Labour Government that it had sorted out the problem and that the Hon Clayton Cosgrove had put through some bills—which we supported as well—to deal with the situation. Unfortunately that was only part of the story. We found there were numerous loopholes. One of them was the fact that the so-called illegal street racers could hide behind their mothers’ skirts or even their nanas’ skirts and have the car in nana’s name. They thought that we could not touch them; of course under the current law frankly we really cannot. So the legislation that Steven Joyce and I are bringing into the House will deal with that. We will be able to look behind the veil of vehicle ownership. One of the other things the current law allows those people to do if their cars have been confiscated and set up for sale is to sell them to a mate next door for $100 and therefore void the whole confiscation. That is the sort of loophole that this Government is trying to close to prevent the courts and the law from being held in contempt by those people in their activities. 
If any members wonder whether we should be taking the action we are taking I suggest they think about the residents of places like Bealey Avenue in Christchurch and the people whose businesses have been destroyed. They should think about the people in the Southern Cross Hospital there who have to shift patients out from their rooms every weekend or every night it happens and take them somewhere else because people cannot sleep. It is not just the noise that has been destroying lives; it is the fact that so much damage is being done. I listened this morning to Radio New Zealand and I heard so many people from Christchurch talking about the damage that has been done. Not one of those people said they wanted to be identified by their name or their address. The reason is that they are frightened of the violence that is being meted out to them in that community and in other communities from one end of New Zealand to the other. We have had people from Dunedin to Kaitaia contact Minister Joyce and me. They are people who have had their property values absolutely destroyed who have had their health destroyed and who are living with fear and intimidation. Those people need strong action. 
I am surprised that the Labour Opposition has said that the legislation is just window dressing. If this legislation is window dressing what was Labour’s legislation? All I can say is that it was a few bits of lace curtain. Labour’s comment is absolute rubbish! Labour should be supporting this bill to the hilt. It should be supporting the police it should be supporting the courts and it should be supporting the judges not bagging them as I heard the Leader of the Opposition do yesterday. It is no wonder that people do not respect the rule of law when the Leader of the Opposition is bagging judges. It is no wonder that that happens. In fact Labour should be supporting the good law-abiding people of Christchurch the good law-abiding people from one end of the country to the other the Automobile Association and the people who have to pick up the pieces—the St John’s ambulance staff and the police—they have to be supported. This Government is not going to stand by and say it is too hard and that we might upset the human right to do burn-outs. I tell members that there is no human right to do burn-outs. There is however a human right to be allowed to live in peace and to get on with one’s business and not to have to put up with the sort of behaviour that has been visited on good law-abiding members of the community. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Who disagrees? 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Actually Mr Cosgrove does. Mr Cosgrove was very very funny about it yesterday and talked about how the legislation was only window dressing. He said that Labour members would support it to go through the first reading but they were not too sure about it after that. Well I suggest that Mr Cosgrove goes back down to the 300-majority seat he holds in Waimakariri and explains to the good people there why this illegal street-racing legislation is not good enough for them and why they do not want to see the very worst recidivist offenders dealt with. That is what he wants so I suggest he actually does that. I think it is extremely important that the people of this country know who supports them—who supports law-abiding people and who supports criminals.