Flavell Te Ururoa: Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:4116] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker Roy. Kia ora tatou e te Whare kua hui mai i tenei po. 
The phenomenon of boy racing is not one of the biggest problems confronting Ngongotaha in Rotorua where I live so I needed to look a little bit wider throughout my electorate to see the extent of boy racing across the Waiariki electorate. The results were quite interesting. In one calendar year between March 2008 and March 2009 the Bay of Plenty witnessed 195 incidents of operating a vehicle in a noisy manner 60 incidents of operating a vehicle in an unnecessary exhibition of speed and 251 incidents of operating a vehicle causing sustained loss of traction. Beyond these criminal offences sit other stories and anecdotes of violence of consistent defiance of way-out noise violations and of antisocial behaviour. 
The explanatory note of the Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill describes the nature of the harm that arises from illegal street racing as being broken into three categories: road safety noise and the public nuisance or disorder associated with what is certainly perceived as antisocial behaviour. It then goes on to address the confiscation of vehicles. It establishes new confiscation and destruction orders. It enables vehicles owned by or used by people with overdue fines to be seized and sold to pay for those fines. It allows a vehicle to be seized not just to recover fines but also to reduce opportunities for traffic offending. Those are all things that we can do today and we should do so. 
But I note that the extent of the problem we are debating tonight is really difficult to get a handle on. The very origins of this bill emerged from the knowledge that the current laws are insufficient to deal with the issue and apprehending drivers in the act of street racing is really really difficult. We know that many participants take great pride in being able to avoid detection by the police and that there is a complex web of communications in train in which word of mouth and text messaging are able to quickly sort out a new venue where those involved in this activity can gather together. I believe that the latest  
Sunday 
 television programme told us all about that. In short this is a subversive subculture which this bill still leaves basically intact. The issues will not go away even if the vehicles do. That is the problem that all of us in this House must continue to explore in order to achieve the outcomes of safer streets and healthier communities. 
The bill amends three separate pieces of legislation the Sentencing Act 2002 the Summary Proceedings Act 1957 and the Privacy Act 1993 in order to reduce boy-racer traffic offending. The amendments are required to firstly strengthen the powers of the courts to order the confiscation of cars; secondly to empower the courts to order the destruction of cars; and thirdly to strengthen provisions to seize cars in order to enforce the collection of unpaid fines and reparations. Suddenly the investment of 600 front-line police and an extra $950 million in Ministry of Justice spending makes sense. In particular the $16 million put aside for improving fines collection I am sure will be immediately put to use with this bill. 
But I guess the question remains of what we should be doing to address the problem of boy racers. I would like to take a little bit of time to note some of the ambiguities around the charges that will be brought in under this bill. Part 2 of the bill according to the explanatory note authorises the confiscation of vehicles that “appear” to belong to offenders. It enables vehicles owned by apparently owned by or used by people or organisations with overdue fines to be seized and sold to pay for overdue fines. Those are the qualifiers. The inclusion of vehicles that are “apparently” owned opens up considerable room for speculation and indecision. The Maori Party would hope that during the select committee process these uncertainties will be tidied up. 
I return again to the question of what those changes will do to encourage these gangs that there is more to life than pushing their souped up vehicles beyond their limits irrespective of the speed zones or the safety of their passengers. What work has gone into exploring the reasons why Christchurch and Hamilton seem particularly attractive to potential boy-racers? Is it a peculiarity of the landscape design where both centres appear pretty flush with long flat roads made for cruising? Or is it something about the populations of Canterbury and Waikato? Are they more inclined to complain to the police than those in other regions? Perhaps it is that the police force is cracking down on boy racers in these areas while other police squads are putting out their fires. Are there more alternative recreations in other cities? Is the car market to blame perhaps? Are souped up imports chock-a-block in Christchurch car yards boy-racing vehicles waiting to happen? Those are the sorts of questions that we wanted to raise. 
There are other theories abounding about the subjects of this bill. A particularly interesting analysis was undertaken in the  
New Zealand Geographer  
journal in a study called “Driving people crazy”. The study tried to come to terms with the activity of boy racers by unpacking the fundamental principles on which this subculture sits. The research identified that the males participating in the study used the car as a prop to situate themselves socially. That was alluded to by Mr Garrett. In other words those who drove the flashier cars were “the man” amongst all men. Apparently that is not just a phenomenon of the young: an ACNielsen survey revealed that more than half of New Zealanders prefer cars with 2-litre engines. A Toyota Starlet or a Honda Civic does not seem to cut it as my colleague Hone Harawira would be quick to point out. But I come back to the boy racers. Other reasons why these vehicles have become a symbol of status appear to be about experiencing a rush getting some relief from the daily routine showing off escaping the boredom perhaps. 
As a father of five I am not of course immune from some of those trials of teenage-hood and the consistent desire for some excitement in life. That in itself is not a bad thing. Indeed one of the Tuhoe nation Tamati Kruger talks about these sensations in terms of te ihi te wehi te wana—those experiences that all of us search for in our pursuit of the mystery of life. But the problem is that for the subculture of boy racers these sensations when closely linked with alcohol consumption stunt driving drag racing doughnuts wilful damage of property and the mass culture surrounding all of that take on a whole new edge. 
Throughout this korero I have attempted to raise some of the issues the Maori Party has debated in our caucus. It is evident that for us the Maori Party members the spectacle of boy-racing convoys leaves us with more questions than answers. We read about the damage to and devastation of property the impact on the reputation of safe communities and the adverse effects upon the tourism industry as alluded to by Mr Cosgrove. But the real costs of the deaths injuries and the mayhem that are created so needlessly on city roads is what has got us all searching for solutions. 
In closing I need to say that I have difficulty with this issue when considering that umpteen armed police entered the Ruatoki valley and the Taneatua communities against the so-called threat of terrorism about 18 months ago. Yet if we were to take as gospel many of the accounts from people like Nicky Wagner Clayton Cosgrove and others tonight that there is intimidation bullying stand-over tactics and so on why then is it not possible to send those same umpteen armed police to Christchurch to deal with the real criminals? The issues in Ruatoki and Taneatua are still perceived at this point in time; innocent people’s lives were seriously disrupted when the police moved. The issues in Christchurch and Hamilton are known and seen as expressed in the House tonight; surely a similar show of force might be worth considering. 
In closing we commend this bill to the select committee process in order that possible solutions may come to the fore. We therefore support this bill at its first reading.