Salesa JennyCRIMINAL PROCEEDS (RECOVERY) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): I present a legislative statement on the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: I move That the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. This bill amends the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act. The Act creates a civil forfeiture regime for property derived from significant criminal activity. While our existing regime is highly effective these changes will further improve our success and efficiency at confiscating property derived from organised and transnational criminal activity. There are five key points I want to make in this third reading speech. The first is the purpose of this legislation. In effect and putting it into plain and simple English language we're going after gang leaders and the facilitators of organised crime and hitting them where it hurts—in their pockets. Gangs and organised criminals will always attempt to avoid the reach of the law by hiding their illegal profits and the Government will continue to respond to ensure that crime does not pay. The Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Bill was introduced into this Parliament 10 years ago. It has become a very effective piece of legislation to ensure that those that seek to gain benefit and profit from crime are—rightly—penalised. But over the previous decade the police have identified an area in particular which with the evolution of knowledge of these organised criminal entities has been that organised gangs have sought to put their profits into the names and into the places where it simply cannot be found. Therefore this bill seeks to close that gap. Now our police have a strong reputation internationally for their work with seizing criminal assets and these changes essentially allow them to reach a little bit further. There are two parts to why we're doing this: one to ensure that we're closing off the gaps where those in those organised gangs have worked out where they can hide assets procured from illegal activities but secondly to protect the families of those—the ones that are loved by those that are in those criminal organisations. We know the police know and those of us that have lived our lives within the communities that understand the nature of gangs and criminal organisations know that there are those that are in their intimate circle their loved ones where they are being forced by dint of their relationships to members in these criminal organised groups—they have been put under pressure to hide these assets. Well we say no more—we say it's time to cut off that route. What we are doing here is that this is part and parcel of our Government's continued multifaceted approach to tackling the harm caused by criminal organisations. This is the next step in the Government's work to curb crime and make our communities safer. It will mean that not only do we have more front-line police than ever before but they have the powers to shut down these activities that are causing harm in all of our backyards and this goes hand in hand with the Government's support for work within our communities to stop our young people becoming involved in crime and criminal activity in the first place. Across multiple initiatives across the justice sector the Government has put over 1500 more police officers on the front line we have rolled out the front-line response model the Resilience to Organised Crime in Communities programme and we have rolled out the transnational organised crime strategy. We have delivered nearly 1000 fog cannons so retailers have an immediate deterrent to theft and ramped up further support for retailers. We've established the National Retail Investigation Support Unit. We've launched and expanded a Better Pathways package which aims to place more young people in education training or work to drive down youth crime and the participation of youth in criminal organisations and activities. We've put in place a new circuit-breaker response for agencies dealing with high-risk youth offenders. We've enacted the Firearm Prohibition Orders Legislation Act and increased the capacity of Te Pae Oranga providers and police to provide additional referrals for rangatahi who have experienced family harm. This bill complements the Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill which will be going through its second reading this afternoon and that provides new targeted warrant and additional search powers to find and seize weapons from gang members during a gang conflict. It expands the range of offences where police can go after their cars their motorbikes and their bling. It increases to up to five years' prison for a new offence for discharging a gun with intent to intimidate. It befuddled me as the new Minister of Justice to find out that we had simply inadequate deterrent measures by way of our penalties to deter people away from shooting armed weapons into public spaces. We are also providing police and other enforcement agencies the ability to seize cash over $10000 when found in suspicious circumstances. Like I said earlier watches bling jewellery precious metals and stones motor vehicles and boats are all being added to the list of high-value goods prohibited for sale for over a specified value. In my introductory remarks I talked about how there has been pressure on loved ones who are associated with those that choose to participate in criminal organisations but particularly where our real focus is is on the leadership of those criminal organisations and enterprises. We know that they exploit personal relationships to hide and stash goods. That's the nature of how one it speaks to the efficiency and the effectiveness of the criminal proceeds recovery scheme but it also shows us that over the past decade people have wised up to what they can do. So what we've sought to do here is ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place for those that are associates. We've sought to define what constitutes an associate". It has to be somebody that is more than just a mere acquaintance who's passed somebody on the street; there needs to be a real and tangible association. The value of the property that cannot be explained needs to be worth more than $30000. Now in my opening remarks on this legislation when we introduced it I said that we were really open to hearing whether or not that threshold was appropriate—was it set at the right level? Through the course of the select committee by and large we heard both views—that it was too high; that it was not enough—and I want to thank the select committee and in particular the former chair of the Justice Committee and now Minister of Police the Hon Ginny Andersen for enabling some amendments there to ensure that it's the cumulative amount of the property to result in that $30000 threshold and that is indeed the one that we are passing. We also know that—and I guess it's been something that's become clear over the past decade since this regime has been in place—we do have those that have procured goods and property through illegal activity who seek to flee overseas and it's been difficult for the reach of the law to be able to get into those assets. Through the legislative fixes and through this bill that will become law today and tonight those issues will be addressed. We will be able to reach into those properties where the police know it's been procured illegally. We'll also be able to reach into other regimes such as the KiwiSaver scheme which in certain circumstances over the life of this bill has been shown to be a place where illegally procured moneys have been stashed. By and large what our Government has sought to do in this area of law reform—we want to honour the late Chester Borrows and replicate his words. He introduced poor policy and he made up for that in his later life. Banning gang patches simply wasn't evidence-based and what we are doing on this side of the House is evidence-based and I'm pleased to see this legislation go through this afternoon. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to."