Flavell: Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill
te-pati-maori
Wed Jun 03 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Flavell: Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill
Wednesday, 3 June 2009, 3:12 pm
Speech: The Maori Party
Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill:
First Reading
Tuesday 2 June 2009
Te Ururoa Flavell,
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Māori Party—Waiariki)245FLAVELL, TE URUROA20:42:25Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tātou e te Whare, e hoa mā tēnei pō. The phenomenon of boy racing is not one of the biggest problems confronting Ngongotahā in Rotorua where I live, so I needed to look a little bit wider throughout my electorate to see the extent of boy racing across the Waiariki electorate.
The results were quite interesting.
In one calendar year, between March 2008 and 2009, the Bay of Plenty witnessed 195 incidents of “operating a vehicle in a noisy manner”, 60 incidents of “operating a vehicle in an unnecessary exhibition of speed”, and 251 incidents of “operating a vehicle causing sustained loss of traction”.
Beyond those criminal offences sit other stories and anecdotes of violence, of consistent defiance, of way-out noise violations, and of antisocial behaviour. The explanatory note of the bill describes the nature of the harm that arises from illegal street-racing as being broken into three categories. They are road safety, noise, and public nuisance and disorder—associated with what is certainly perceived as antisocial behaviour.
It then goes on to address the confiscation of vehicles. The bill establishes new confiscation and destruction orders. It enables vehicles owned by or used by people with overdue fines, to be seized and sold to pay for those fines. It allows a vehicle to be seized not just to recover fines but also to reduce opportunities for traffic offending.
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Those are all things that we can do now, and we should do so.
But I note that the extent of the problem we are debating tonight is really difficult to get a handle on.
The very origins of this bill emerged from the knowledge that the current laws are insufficient to deal with the issue, and apprehending drivers in the act of street racing is really, really difficult.
We know that many participants take great pride in being able to avoid detection by the police; that there is a complex web of communications in train in which word of mouth and text messaging are able to be quickly sorted out, for a new venue where those involved in that activity can gather together. I believe that the latest television Sunday programme told us all about that. In short, this is a subversive subculture, which this bill still leaves basically intact.
The issues will not go away, even if the vehicles do. That is the problem that all of us in this House must continue to explore in order to achieve the outcomes of safer streets and healthier communities.
The bill amends three separate pieces of legislation: the Sentencing Act 2002, the Summary Proceedings Act 1957, and the Privacy Act 1993 in order to reduce boy-racer traffic offending.
The amendments are required to, firstly, strengthen the powers of the courts to order the confiscation of cars; secondly, to empower the courts to order the destruction of cars; and, thirdly, to strengthen provisions to seize cars in order to enforce collection of unpaid fines and reparations.
Suddenly, the investment of 600 front-line police and an extra $950 million in Ministry of Justice spending makes sense.
In particular, the $16 million put aside for improving fine collection, I am sure, will be immediately put to use with this Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill.
But I guess the question remains of what we should be doing to address the problem of boy racers.
I would like to take a little bit of time to note some of the ambiguities around the charges that will be brought in under this bill.
Part 2 authorises the confiscation of vehicles that “appear” to belong to offenders.
It enables vehicles owned by, apparently owned by, or otherwise, or used by people or organisations with overdue fines to be seized and sold to pay for overdue fines. Those are the qualifiers.
The vehicles “apparently” owned, open up considerable room for speculation and indecision.
The Māori Party would hope that during the select committee process those uncertainties will be tidied up.
I return again to the question of what those changes will do to encourage those gangs that there is more to life than pushing their souped-up vehicles beyond their limits, irrespective of the speed zones or the safety of their passengers.
What work has gone into exploring the reasons why Christchurch and Hamilton seem particularly attractive to potential boy racers?
Is it a peculiarity of the landscape design whereby both centres appear pretty flush with long, flat roads made for cruising?
Or is it something about the populations of Canterbury and Waikato? Are they more inclined to complain to the police, than in other regions? Perhaps it is that the police force is cracking down on boy racers in those areas, while other police squads are putting out their fires.
Are there more alternative recreations in other cities? Is the car market to blame perhaps? Are souped-up imports, *chock-a-block in Christchurch car yards, boy-racing vehicles waiting to happen? Those are the *sorts of questions that we wanted to raise.
There are other theories abounding about the subjects of this bill.
A particularly interesting analysis was undertaken in the New Zealand Geographer journal in a study called “Driving people crazy”.
The study tried to come to terms with the activity of boy racers, by unpacking the fundamental principles on which this subculture sits.
The research identified that the males participating in the study used the car as a prop to situate themselves socially. That was sort of alluded to by Mr Garret. In other words, those who drove the flashier cars were “the man” amongst all men.
Apparently, that is not just a phenomenon of the young: an AC Nielson survey revealed that more than half of New Zealanders prefer cars with 2-litre engines. A Toyota Starlet or a Honda Civic perhaps just does not seem to cut it, as my colleague Hone Harawira would be quick to point out. But I come back to the boy racers.
Other reasons why those vehicles became a symbol of status appears to be about experiencing a rush: getting some relief from the daily routine, showing off, escaping the boredom perhaps.
As a father of five, I am not, of course, immune to some of those trials of teenage-hood and the consistent desire for those issues of excitemen of life. That, of itself, is not a bad thing. Indeed, one of the Tuhoe Nation Tamati Kruger talks about those sensations in terms of te ihi, te wehi, te wana—those experiences that all of us search for in our pursuit of the mystery of life
TE URUROA FLAVELL245 But the problem is that for this subculture of boy racers, these sensations, when closely linked with alcohol consumption, stunt driving, drag racing, doughnuts, wilful damage of property, and the mass culture surrounding all of that, take on a whole new edge.
Throughout this kōrero I have attempted to raise some of the issues the Māori Party has debated in its caucus. It is evident that for us, the Māori Party members, the spectacle of boy-racing convoys leaves us with more questions than answers.
We read about the damage and devastation of property, the impact on the reputation of safe communities, and the adverse effects upon the tourist industry, as alluded to by Mr Cosgrove.
But the real costs of the deaths, injuries, and mayhem that is created so needlessly on city roads is what has got us all searching for solutions.
In closing, I need to say that I have difficulty with this issue when considering that umpteen armed police entered the Ruātoki valley and the Tāneatua communities against the so-called threat of terrorism about 18 months ago. Yet if we were to take as gospel many of the accounts from people like Nicky Wagner, Clayton Cosgrove, and others tonight, that there is intimidation, bullying, stand-over tactics, and so on, why then is it not possible to send those same umpteen armed police to Christchurch to deal with the real criminals.
The issues in Ruātoki and Tāneatua are still perceived, at this point in time; innocent people’s lives were seriously disrupted when the police moved. The issues in Christchurch and Hamilton are known and seen, as expressed in the House tonight; surely a similar show of force might be worth considering. So we commend this bill to go through the select committee process, in order that possible solutions may come to the fore, and we therefore support this bill at its first reading.
ENDS
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