Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. The National Party will be supporting this bill. It will help with a problem that has been largely of this Government's own making because they have in their soft on crime" way with the encouragement of the Police thought it would be a good idea never to chase anybody that puts their foot down and takes off. And lo and behold amazingly unbelievably people figured out that if all you have to do if you are stopped by police is put your foot down and drive off and nobody will ever chase you well unbelievably a lot more people will do it! And we've seen the figures that there's been a doubling of the number of people taking off and racing off.We've seen over the past five years the explosion in ram raiding and a 500-plus percent increase in the number of ram raids where people smash their car into something steal something smash another car and take off. And the police don't chase them and lo and behold there's been a problem. And so the Government is finally having point blank refused that there was an issue and said "Oh no no no there's no problem. Criminals will"—well I don't know what they thought they were going to do but there wasn't a problem they said. And six years later when we see law and order breaking down in our communities people driving around doing smash and grabs ram raids on the rise a doubling of the number of people taking off when the police try and stop them they finally come around and say "Well yes maybe we should do something about it." and the Police are revising their chase policy.There has to be a risk that you will be chased. If there's no risk that you will be chased then the behaviour is going to be obvious. And this bill of course brings in some ability for cars to be impounded. Well yep OK and we agree with it. But I suppose the obvious point one would make is that most of the cars involved in ram raids for example—it's not that you take your car along and ram-raid it into a house and then when the police see you you take off. It doesn't tend to be your car that you're using. It doesn't tend to be your car that you're using. It tends to be somebody else's car that you've stolen that you're driving and that you take off when the police try and stop you.And so we've got this legislation that will say: so you woke up in the morning you find that somebody has stolen your car and used it for criminal activity—which is pretty upsetting pretty bad when somebody steals your car and uses it for criminal activity—but then you find you get a notice that your car is going to be impounded because somebody else has stolen your car and used it for criminal activity. That would be a bit odd. So that is a bit of an issue. So yes it will affect a few people who do this in their own car and it may combined with a change to the pursuit policy—because at the moment I think it's about only 18 percent of ram-raiders and people who take off when police try and stop them who are ever identified. So it may help in a few instances.But I think the broader issue that we have to deal with is what this bill doesn't change which is the culture of excuses that this Government has on crime. And it doesn't change the fact that the only target this Government has in the justice space is to reduce the prison population irrespective of what's happening in the community irrespective of violent crime. That's the only target. We on this side of the House believe the only target in justice should be to reduce the number of victims of crime. That should be the focus rather than an arbitrary reduction in prison numbers. That arbitrary reduction in prison numbers combined with a "soft on crime" approach and "soft on the causes of crime" approach as well because they don't deal with the long-term drivers that combination combined with an attitude that if you put your foot down you'll be fined and nobody will chase you—all that has led to this explosion in law and order descending in our country.It's lagged to the point that if you live in Auckland every night you hear the chopper whirring overhead trying to find somebody that's taken off. And if you happen to own a retail store or if you happen to work in a retail store you go in to work every day and if you happen to be working for Michael Hill Jeweller for example you go into work every day wondering if today is going to be the day that your shop is bowled over. In Takapuna it's happened so many times that they've given up—because of the breakdown in law and order under this Government.So yes we support this bill—good—it'll make some difference but boy there's so much more to be done. And when we look at this Budget as a whole—we're in the Budget debate—there was a lot of extra spending nothing done to grow the economy and very little on the law and order front. And that I think is out of touch with the concerns and the needs of our community right here right now. Thank you Madam Speaker."