McKee NicoleNICOLE McKEE (ACT): I stand to speak on the Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers (Electronic Records) Amendment Bill. I'd like to begin by commending the member Andrew Bayly for his good intent with this bill in its drafting. When I looked at the New Zealand Police website on dealer requirements for second-hand dealers pawnbrokers and scrap metal merchants I saw that there's actually quite extensive legal requirements needed in order for them to operate. They have to make sure that they gather names and addresses verify the identity of the people that they purchase from identify what's been purchased write down the serial numbers and identifying marks when it sold. All of this information is already being collected or it should be.But when we looked at the programs that they're wanting to implement which is SNAC or the Serial Number Automated Checker of course that's for the businesses in order for them to be able to put what they're already collecting into a regime where police would be able to read it easily. I wonder whether it's got something to do with the SNAP program as well or the Serial Number Action Partnership and that's where people can go on to the New Zealand Police website and actually input their assets with their serial numbers and descriptions in there so should they be burgled or their house burns down they can access that information including serial numbers for insurance purposes or for police purposes easily anywhere at any time.So I do wonder whether or not there are actually police wanting to marry these two programs up SNAC and SNAP to make them a lot more effective. The change that's suggested is actually in line with the purpose of the principal legislation and it aims to provide the architecture for better Police interventions to recover stolen goods." When you have a program that's shown over a two-year period to resolve 99 burglaries and recover 177 stolen items then you can pretty much suggest that that trial in Counties Manukau actually worked.But we do question at what cost will this be to businesses. The 24 dealers were the trialists in Counties Manukau and 400 second-hand or scrap metal dealers are expected to be just in the Auckland area alone. Nationwide I expect the potential number of businesses that could be affected by this would run to the thousands. It looks like that this program will actually help police to solve crime. I mean it's a program specifically designed to make the job of the police easier faster and more accurate. However I ask again: at what cost to the businesses? There will be a requirement that the businesses who do not have computers will now have to invest in one so that's an added expense. I ask whether or not the businesses will have to pay for the program to be implemented into their work space and is an internet connection necessary in order for it to work? Remembering that not every town in this country actually has access to the internet will every dealer in the country be able to ensure that they have the equipment required to implement this program within a three-month period and if so who will do the national training on its use and can they do it within that three-month period? Then who literally actually pays for this? The system will mean that the dealers are out of pocket both for the purchase they have made from sellers and potentially for the program implementation itself as well as I expect its continued upgrade.Police are the beneficiaries of this information and the cost savings for investigations and saving less time actually runs in their court. ACT's highlighted just a few of the concerns around this bill but we do support it to the select committee stage and the reason for that is because the questions that we've just posed and that other parties have posed should actually be answered by the people that this would be affected by. I think that they deserve the chance especially when we've had such a good trial in Counties Manukau to actually be able to say "Yes we want to be a part of this." or not. It's actually letting the people have a voice. I said at the beginning of this speech that the change is in line with the purpose of the principal legislation. On that basis we think this should go to select committee stage so we can hear from the second-hand dealers from the pawnbrokers and from the scrap metal merchants and in that regard we do support this bill."