Gallagher Martin: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Gallagher Martin: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:626;Page:21671] 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 As chair of the Law and Order Committee I will be gracious and thank all the members of the committee for their hard work on the bill. I cannot conceal my disappointment in terms of the previous contribution and its negativity but I acknowledge that all members of the committee did a lot of hard work on this bill. I thank in particular the deputy chair Marc Alexander and I also acknowledge my colleague Ron Mark and the Government members—Georgina Beyer Ann Hartley and Mahara Okeroa—for the work they did. I want to pick up and re-emphasise the main points of this bill. I will take only a very short call because we have a long way to go. The Leader of the House will be most comforted by the fact that I will take a short call because I anticipate much debate in the Committee stage and at the subsequent third reading. 
Basically in summary as the Minister has said this bill updates and improves a number of aspects of the law relating to the enforcement of fines and civil debts. It will significantly improve the Ministry of Justice’s capacity to enforce and collect unpaid fines. As has been detailed I believe that our committee has recommended a number of very worthwhile improvements to the bill. I note also that the Minister in his address to the House noted that further substantial changes to the law relating to fines enforcement will result from a comprehensive review of the infringement fines system that is now being undertaken by the Ministry of Justice in conjunction with the Law Commission. A discussion document was issued last year that outlined the issues being addressed in the review. A number of very useful submissions have been received and the Minister will make further announcements about the progress of that review in the near future. It will be a comprehensive review with comprehensive submissions—not the sort of 30-second sound bite - type of contribution that was made by the previous speaker. 
We will be talking during this debate about the ability of airports to intercept significant fines defaulters and about where the reasonable line is. If a person owes 20 or 30 bucks for a parking ticket and is going for a week or so to the Gold Coast will he or she get zapped and pulled out of the passenger queue for that? Where is the reasonable line? I anticipate debate about where that line should be and also about the need for flexibility as cost of living indices change over time. 
I want to highlight perhaps one area and then I will sit down because I know we will have a long session on this bill. That issue relates to the visit made by the select committee last year to Australia as part of a parliamentary exchange. I note that the bill does not provide for a reciprocal information-sharing policy with Australia in terms of targeting New Zealand fines defaulters who are now resident in Australia. But as a select committee we continue to have an ongoing interest in the ministry’s efforts to target New Zealand fines defaulters who live overseas especially in Australia. That is a difficult and complex area to address but in our view the bill provides a good starting place. It targets people with fines owing who are leaving New Zealand for Australia and we strongly encourage the ministry to continue to look at ways to collect outstanding fines that can be linked to New Zealanders who live in Australia. If someone escapes from a custodial sentence he or she can be extradited back across the Tasman for crimes attracting custodial sentences. But quite frankly if someone who has huge fines outstanding here is living in Darwin or Perth or vice versa—if someone who lives in Taumarunui comes from Perth or wherever else in Australia—then we need to look at better reciprocal arrangements. The select committee observed when we visited Australia that even the interstate arrangements were not as perfect as they could be. There is more work in progress that needs to be done. 
I will be taking further calls later in this debate. I take the opportunity now to thank the committee for its hard work and I look forward to the passage of this bill.