Mark Ron: Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Mark Ron: Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:4579] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 To carry on from that although this bill will not stop sad and tragic accidents such as the one Brian Connell has described it will act as a deterrent. I am absolutely gobsmacked that some of my colleagues from the ACT party are not supporting this bill because so often during the elections when I was out there on the hustings I could look to the ACT candidate or spokesperson there to be a staunch person behind the zero tolerance approach. 
Martin Gallagher 
: Remember the Hamilton meetings. 
RON MARK 
: I did not go up to Hamilton for the meetings. The point I want to make is that not only will this bill this part and these clauses give the police the tools to enforce these laws and to prosecute people who behave in this manner but I am adamant that the law itself will act as a deterrent. 
There are numerous facets to law enforcement. Law enforcement is what we have to do when we are dealing with those who do not want to follow society’s standards and norms. We also deal with punitive measures with rehabilitation and with information in terms of informing the public of what is good what is right what is wrong and what is illegal. But there is an element in every piece of legislation such as this that is there to deter young people and in this case elderly gentlemen who own soft-top cars and who might for a moment decide to go and burn out their tyres somewhere. It is there to deter. If this bill does one thing I will be happy; if it deters these people from performing these acts on our highways on our back streets and in our suburbs then even if not one person is prosecuted under this law from here on it will have done its job and I will be very happy. I will be very pleased about that. If the deterrent that is posed in this legislation is such that all these people join car clubs and attend Sunday afternoon burnouts at the Ruapuna racetrack I will be happy. This bill will have done its job. 
But for those who just cannot learn those people whom we continually read about who boast on nationwide television—when they get that wonderful platform thanks to  
Holmes 
—that they have racked up $20000 worth of fines and it is a big joke this law will now give the police the weapon they need to hit them where it hurts by taking their prized possession away from them. Some of us would rather crush it. The member who introduced the bill had a good suggestion—that the car be sold. That would go some way towards resourcing the police. Unfortunately we know that would not happen. Unfortunately we know that the money would go into the consolidated account and probably be wasted on some beneficiary scheme somewhere. 
The points that members have made are valid. Youth crime is out of control. But that is not a reason not to pass this bill. Police are under-resourced. They have a shortage of manpower of personnel they have a shortage of finance and they have a shortage of legislation. Well this legislation is one more step that will address at least one of those shortages. Yes I do not agree with the placing of priorities. I heard comments the other day about the highway patrol being out there picking up the pieces. Well excuse me but I know of more front-line bobbies—who are not in the highway patrol—attending road accidents and picking up the pieces than highway patrol people. That is a concern to me because it tells me that the priorities might well be focused on revenue gathering as opposed to enforcing traffic laws and dealing with the traffic-engineering problems that the old Ministry of Transport cops used to deal with. But that is another issue. 
This bill aims to deal with a problem that has been with us for 15 or 20 years. I go back to the days when I hotted up my Mark III Zephyr put big wheels on it lowered it bored out the pistons to 3 litres put in oversized valves and got that thing doing 120 miles an hour; I guess I have to accept that the problem has been around a very long time. But there are bigger dangers now and the consequences today have got to the stage where the public has said: “Enough! We have zero tolerance for this now.” That is what this bill is here to deal with and that is why we support it. 
I accept all the arguments that have been put up about youth crime and the flaky Children Young Persons and Their Families Act which I would take a chainsaw to tomorrow. I accept all the arguments about young people who attend family group conference after family group conference but let us face it: many of those people have been breaking the law in this manner on our roads. They have not been deterred. This bill and the provisions laid out in Part 2 will deter them. I will come back to the part that deals with petrol and oil.