Blue Jackie: Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill — First Reading 
Blue Jackie: Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:4118] 
Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 The Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill follows on from the Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill to form the Government’s legislative response to illegal street racing. First of all my congratulations go to Judith Collins who has been determined in her crusade against illegal street racing. I also acknowledge my colleague Nicky Wagner who has been waging a war against the noise that boy racers make. These two bills the Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill and the Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill will give the police courts and local authorities greater powers to tackle illegal street racers and to crush their vehicles as a last resort. Together these bills will send a strong message to illegal street racers that dangerous disruptive and antisocial use of vehicles is not acceptable. Illegal street racers cause excessive noise disruption and intimidation. 
The public have had enough. The police have had enough. The Government is determined to see illegal street racing off our roads. This Government will not accept that the laws of our land have been flouted. The Government and the public have lost patience with drivers who use their vehicles in an antisocial manner and who put the safety of the public and the police at risk. Illegal street racing is fairly widespread in New Zealand; it threatens public safety. Earlier this year there was an attack on a lone police officer by a mob of illegal street racers and their friends. Indeed this was nothing less than cowardly mob behaviour. Following that attack the Prime Minister Minister Joyce and Minister Collins asked officials from the police the New Zealand Transport Agency and the ministries of transport and justice to work together to create this new legislation. 
The public are simply fed up with hoons running riot and with cars doing skids churning up grass verges and scattering rubbish. It is not just about the dangerous driving and the putting the public at risk; it is also about what these hoons leave in their wake—soggy beer cartons broken bottles and flattened cans littering pavements and roads and spray-painted start and finish lines on the roads. It is also about property being damaged fences destroyed and grass areas ripped up. These idiots have gone on far too long and got away with it. Well they will not be getting away with it any more under this new legislation. Residents are sick of being woken up and having to listen to boy racers’ antisocial behaviour. 
I digress a wee bit to say that I live in a street in Auckland that does not normally have street racing but I tell members that not so long ago I was woken up at 2 a.m. by the searing screeching noise of tyres. I looked out and the road was full of smoke. It was rubber burning; wheels were on fire. The noise was tremendous and quite frankly I was intimidated. It was a frightening experience. 
The public are living in fear of reprisals if any of them complain. Then there is the concern of vigilante action being taken by residents—the situation where they could take the law into their own hands. We all know that two wrongs do not make a right but these two laws together will send a powerful message that members of the public do not have to live in fear in their own homes and that they will not have to take the law into their own hands. The Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill which has already passed its first reading will include provisions firstly to allow local authorities to create by-laws that will prevent vehicles from repeatedly cruising city streets. Secondly they will allow a compulsory impoundment of vehicles involved in illegal street racing. Thirdly they will produce demerit points for noise offences licence breaches and registration plate offences. This will ensure that repeat offenders will lose their licences rather than just accrue fines. 
The Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill is about ensuring that the penalties for this antisocial behaviour are a strong deterrent to repeat offending. This Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill aims to take the worst boy racers off the road by taking away their vehicles permanently. Crushing cars will be the last resort for dealing with only the most serious of repeat offenders but every offence will bring them closer to the crusher. 
The Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill will allow vehicles to be seized and destroyed as a new penalty against illegal street racing. It will allow vehicles repeatedly used by people with overdue traffic fines to be seized and sold to pay for those fines. It will enable the police and courts to target illegal street racers who commit offences in another person’s vehicle. 
Illegal street racing is detrimental at every level. The police and our city councils need to have the tools to deal with this issue. These two bills will give the police the tools they urgently need. Indeed the current law is not working; it has not stopped illegal street racing. There have been thousands of offences under the Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Act since it was passed in 2003. Each year the number has grown and more than 90 percent of these offences have resulted in the police impounding cars. But the threat of having a car impounded for only 28 days is not a deterrent. As well the number of fatalities where showing off or racing has contributed to deaths has actually risen since the law was passed. By taking away the vehicles of illegal street racers permanently they will be prevented from buying back their cars and reoffending. By enabling the police and courts to target illegal street racers who use another person’s car to offend car owners will be encouraged to take a greater level of responsibility for their property. 
Many illegal street racers rack up huge fines which they refuse to pay; under this bill cars will be seized and sold to pay the fines of the worst offenders. Motor vehicles will be able to be seized if fines and reparations remain unpaid. If these penalties remain unpaid after the vehicle has been seized then the vehicle will be able to be sold at public auction. The proceeds of the sale will be applied in the same order of priority as for confiscation and destruction. 
A number of deaths reported in the media have been attributed to boy-racer - type activities and I include some of the following: in May 2008 Scott Finn 20 years died during an illegal street race in Mount Maunganui. He was hit as one of the vehicles returned at high speed on the wrong side of the road. In May 2008 Laureen Helen Reilly 60 years was killed after being hit when a 25-year-old lost control of his high-performance car while racing in Christchurch. In March 2008 Ratu Victor Vikash Junior Lal 23 years and his 18-year-old passenger Adam Herrick were killed in an apparent street racing accident in Birkenhead on Auckland’s North Shore. In May 2007 two girls both 16 were killed and 17 party-goers were injured when Lipine Sila drove into a crowd at a Christchurch party. Sila 23 years was sentenced to a non-parole period of 17 years and was jailed on two charges of murder and eight of grievous bodily harm. In August 2006 pedestrian Amy Edward-Minton was killed while crossing Cambridge Terrace in Wellington during a drag race by two boy racers. In December 2005 Billy Wall 12 years was killed on State Highway 1 south of Taupo when one of two speeding cars crashed into him as he crossed the road on New Year’s Eve 2005. 
I could go on for this is the face the tragic face of illegal street racing. This Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill which follows on from the Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill will make our streets and our communities safer. I commend this bill to the House.