Mark Ron: Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Mark Ron: Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:14274] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise to indicate that New Zealand First will continue to support the passage of this legislation and to congratulate the Government. It is interesting that in the last two bills I have had to debate on behalf of New Zealand First I have made it very clear to the Government that I totally opposed the legislation it brought to this House. I totally opposed the reason and the rationale for it and I tried my best to articulate New Zealand First’s reasons why. I did articulate in the last debate that I thought we possibly did not need to have that last bill in the House. We could have been moving on with legislation the Government had that New Zealand First supported and was keen to see passed into law. 
This is one such piece of legislation and I will say firstly congratulations to the Government on dealing with this issue and congratulations to the entire Law and Order Committee. It was something of a revelation. I think this legislation the updating and amending of the legislation in so far as second-hand dealers and pawnbrokers are concerned is something that has been at the forefront of the minds of police officers and criminal investigative staff for a very long time. The reasons are very clear. Second-hand shops are places where in the past—and hopefully we will soon be able to say it is in the past—stolen goods were most often fenced got rid off and moved on at profit to the underworld the organised crime elements within our society. Indeed I have had some very blunt and frank discussions with members of our police force on occasions and if they had had their way they would have had certain second-hand and pawnbrokers’ shops particularly in the Christchurch area shut down and put out of business a decade ago. In their minds those people are nothing more than a front for organised crime. 
Regrettably those sorts of activities stigmatise and bring into disrepute people who are legitimate second-hand dealers and pawnbrokers who do their very best to cooperate with the police to ensure that nothing illicit passes across their tables. It is an area fraught with difficulties in terms of law enforcement and it is very timely that this issue is being brought to the Law and Order Committee and dealt with as promptly as it has been. When I say promptly I see that the bill was introduced to the House on 5 June 2003 and here we are—maybe not so promptly—on 1 July 2004 finally working our way towards the third reading. I suggest we would be much further down the road if we had not had some of other rubbish legislation brought to the House and distracting us. 
I will simply say that this legislation is good legislation. It has been worked through well. The issues have been well discussed and well canvassed. The select committee worked as a team under the chairmanship of Martin Gallagher and the deputy chairmanship of Marc Alexander and I think the results are good. I note the Hon Tony Ryall’s intention to move an amendment to clause 54. I also note that the select committee unanimously put in a new clause that strikes out the original. I am still of the mind that that new unanimously agreed clause is the right way to go but I will listen to the debate and then indicate where New Zealand First will finally come down. 
But I do think that a public auction conducted by a person who is not the pawnbroker or the pawnbroker’s spouse or de facto partner or an employee of that particular pawnbroker is the sensible way to go. It removes conflict of interest and that is the issue we discussed at some length and the officials tried to work through. But we are listening and if there are more compelling arguments who knows we might be able to support them. 
I guess at the end of the day—and the comment has been touched on—all of this is no use at all if the law enforcement agencies do not have the resources to deal with organised crime burglaries robberies and those who get rid of fence or distribute stolen property. All this legislation amounts to nothing if we do not resource the police accordingly so that they can enforce it. I have huge reservations about whether our police will be able to actively enforce the law and tighten up on organised criminal elements who take advantage of second-hand dealerships because they simply do not have the numbers. I have huge reservations because we still continue to see policemen and women who are supposedly in the police force to carry out general duties and investigative work being siphoned off and ring-fenced around traffic policing and quota ticketing. Those are my concerns. 
Whilst we continue to see that sort of administration within the police force then I am sorry but we will continue to see organised crime flourish. I would much rather that this bill was supported by a commensurate all-out attack on organised crime a move to criminalise membership of gangs and organised criminal elements andseriously put them out of business thereby reducing the need for us to pay such close scrutiny to second-hand dealers and pawnbrokers who in the main are legitimate honest folk. New Zealand First will be supporting the second reading of this bill.