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Coat of arms of New Zealand


New Zealand Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill edit

The New Zealand Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill was a Government bill introduced to the NZ Parliament on the 26/05/2009 [1].

It builds upon The Land Transport ( Street and Illegal Drag racing ) Amendment Bill 2002 which was introduced by the previous Labour Government[2].

It was divided into three Separate Bills by the Committee of the Whole House on the 20/10/09[3]. These bills took the form of The Sentencing ( Vehicle Confiscation ) Amendment Act 2009, The Summary Proceedings ( Vehicle Seizure ) Amendment Act 2009 and The Privacy Amendment Act 2009.

Aims of the Legislation. edit

“The central objective of this legislation is to significantly reduce the harm and nuisance caused to communities by illegal street racers” - Hon Judith Collins[4] ( Member in charge of the bill ) during the third reading on the 20/10/2009.

The bill, in partnership with the Land Transport ( Enforcement Powers Act ), is the Government of New Zealand's primary response to illegal ‘street racing [1].’ It seeks to achieve this by increasing the powers of the judiciary branch of the Government. Increased powers of these courts involve the ability to order the destruction of vehicles used by recidivist offenders. Encouraging the payment of unpaid fines is a secondary motivation of these destructive court powers [5].

The bill also seeks to close a loophole in the legislation of the time surrounding third parties. The bill extends the courts the necessary powers to confiscate - and potentially destroy - vehicles owned by a third party but utilised by the offender in their offending. This was a major problem for the judicial system under the previous legislation.[2] Approximately half of all vehicles liable for confiscation were owned by a third party [5].

Timeline of the Bills Legislative Pathway [1] edit

  • Introduction - 26/05/2009
  • Date of First Reading - 02/06/2009. Ayes - 112. 58 New Zealand National, 42 New Zealand Labour, 5 Act New Zealand, 5 Maori Party, 1 United Future, 1 Progressive Party. Noes - 9. 9 Green Party
  • Submissions due - 03/07/2009
  • Select Committee Report - 15/09/2009
  • Date of Second Reading - 13/10/2009. Ayes - 113. 58 New Zealand National, 43 New Zealand Labour, 5 Act New Zealand, 5 Maori Party, 1 United Future, 1 Progressive Party. Noes - 8. 8 Green Party.
  • Committee of the Whole House - 20/10/2009 ( Divided by committee of the Whole House )
  • Third Readings ( of the now Divided Sentencing (Vehicle Confiscation) Amendment Bill, Summary Proceedings (Vehicle Seizure) Amendment Bill and Privacy Amendment Bill - 20/10/2009 Ayes - 113. 58 New Zealand National, 43 New Zealand Labour, 5 Act New Zealand, 5 Maori Party, 1 United Future, 1 Progressive Party. Noes - 9. 9 Green Party.
  • Date of Royal Assent - 27/10/2009

Sentencing ( Vehicle Confiscation ) Amendment Act 2009 edit

This Act came into force on the 01/12/2009. The Sentencing Act 2002 is the Act principally amended by the introduction of the Sentencing ( Vehicle Confiscation ) Amendment Act 2009.

It is the intention of this Act to reduce illegal street racing - referred to in the legislation as ‘traffic offending’. Increasing the power of the judiciary to be able to order the confiscation and/or crushing of vehicles is how this is achieved.

Notable Amendments and their meanings.

  • 129A - The Court may order the Confiscation and Destruction of a Vehicle after a third illegal street racing offence by an offender. These three offences must be committed within a span of four years. It does not matter, for this order, the differences between these three offences nor if the vehicle is owned by the offender or owned by a third party. [6]
  • 130A - This section seeks to close the loophole of offenders disposing of their ownership share in the vehicle after being served with a written caution. It enables the courts to disregard this sale of ownership - and apply Section 128 or 129A - if the court believes the intent behind this sale was not bona fide. [6]
  • 132A - This section creates it as an offence to either sell or dispose of a vehicle that is subject to a confiscation order. [6]
  • 141A - This section outlines the payments that must occur before section 141 can take place and the order they must take place in. These are the costs associated with the vehicles impoundment and the confiscation costs. [6]
  • 141B - This section outlines the manner about which the party, to whom the vehicle was transferred to under 141, would go about selling said vehicle and their responsibilities to the court. [6]


Summary Proceedings ( Vehicle Seizure ) Amendment Act 2009 edit

The date this act came into force was the 01/12/2009. The Summary Proceedings Act 1957 is the Act amended by the introduction of this Act. [7]

The intention behind this Acts introduction is to improve the provisions surrounding the seizure of vehicles so that fines may be collected more effectively. This specific purpose fits within the overarching goal of reducing traffic offending. [8]

Notable Amendments and their meanings.

  • 100C - This section introduces a comprehensive group of measures surrounding the serving of written cautions. The purpose of this caution is to advise the owner of a vehicle - owing to which there are outstanding fines - that this vehicle is able to be seized in the event these fines remain unpaid. The caution also advises that if another traffic offence was to be committed the vehicle would also be able to be seized. [9]
  • 100F - This section details the protocol surrounding the actual seizure of said vehicles. What is new is the ability for those seizing the vehicle to also be able to seize any vehicle that the defendant looks to have an ownership share in. They are also able to seize any vehicle that a substitute for the defender looks to have an ownership share in also. [9]
  • 100R - This section enables individuals who as a substitute for the defendant - and who have an ownership share in the vehicle - to challenge the seizure of the said vehicle. This challenge must be within seven days of the seizure and be on the appropriate grounds - for example, that they did not actually have an ownership share in said vehicle. [9]


Privacy Amendment Act 2009 [10] edit

The date this Act came into force was the 01/12/2009. The Privacy Amendment Act 2009 is the smallest of the three Acts divided from the Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill. The Privacy Act 1993 is the Act amended by the introduction of this act. [10]

It seeks to amend Schedule five of the Privacy Act which details information available to law enforcement. Specifically, in this context, it is done with the purpose of aiding the Ministry of Justice so they may collect fines. [10]

Notable Amendments and their meanings.

  • This act only has one amendment. It details the specific information which the Ministry of Justice is entitled to. Specifics of the vehicle in which the offence was committed and personal information relating to the offender is now available to the MoJ. [11]

Impacts of the Acts edit

 
Flag of the New Zealand Police

Quantifiably, the successfulness of this type of legislation is hard to determine. Due to the fact that it is difficult to isolate its direct impacts as traffic offending in New Zealand is changing regularly. The most notable of these changing factors is the Road Policing Strategy by the New Zealand Police. In 2010, for example,"Reducing illegal street racing [12]" was a defined goal of the Police in this report. These changing four year initiatives by the Police force bring differing degrees of focus upon illegal street racing [13] and as such interfere with any attempt to clearly define the legislation impacts.

 
Anne Tolley, Minister of Police 2011-2014

The first car to be crushed - as a result of this legislation - took place on the 21st of June 2012. [14] On the same day, then Minister of Police, Anne Tolley reported Police data indicating a 29% decrease in 'boy racing' since 2009 [14]. She directly linked the legislation as the key deterrent contributing to this decrease.[14] As of 2017, two more vehicles have also been crushed after confiscation resulting in a total of three[15].

As the Minister in Charge of the Bill, Judith Collins, stated “The number of deaths, injuries and crashes due to illegal street racing have plummeted.” [15] Statistics released from her office, in 2016, detailed the amount of deaths, injuries and crashes that the Police believe 'racing' to have been a contributing factor. This data - as demonstrated in the table below - clearly tracks a decline in all three categories presented. The mean average of deaths declined from 6.625 in the years 2001-2008 to 2.2 between 2010-2014. In the same time periods - injuries decreased from an average of 82.25 to 28.4 and total crashes also decreased from 86.375 to 40.8.

Table of Deaths, Injuries and Crashes in which Racing was a Contributing Factor edit
[16][17]
Year Deaths Injuries Crashes (Injury and Non-Injury)
2001 7 77 70
2002 3 88 85
2003 9 79 72
2004 8 71 77
2005 6 97 97
2006 6 87 92
2007 9 91 116
2008 5 68 82
2009 6 49 69
2010 1 49 71
2011 4 29 42
2012 4 27 36
2013 2 14 32
2014 0 23 23

Other statistics also support the trends purported in the table above. Crashes related to ‘Boy racing’ decreased between the years 2007 and 2015[18]. The record high of 116 racing influenced accidents in 2007 is substantially higher than the 15 crashes reported in 2015[15]. Additionally statistics provided by Anne Tolley in 2013 revealed a 35% decline in 'boy-racer' / traffic offences [19]. Quantifiably, this decline was from 2738 offences in 2009 to 1759 in 2012 [19].

With regard to recidivist traffic offenders: from the 8,765 offenders since 2009 a total of 172 offenders have been awarded a second strike whilst ten have committed a third offence [15].

Criticisms of the Bills edit

Notably, throughout the submission process and the acts readings, many key stakeholders voiced critical opinions towards the act.

Once such stance was taken by the New Zealand Police towards the first incarnation of the Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill. In a submission presented to the Transport and Industrial Relations committee in July 2009 Police championed the intent to "address some of the major concerns associated with habitual irresponsible behaviour involving motor vehicles"[20]. However, the Police went on to express some major doubts concerning the effectiveness of the legislation in practice and the narrowness of the legislations application[20]. Their statement "in our view, however, the package of measures as introduced, whilst containing some positive changes, is unlikely in practice to make a great deal of difference overall to the status quo[20]" reflects their belief. The fact that this submission was presented towards the first production of the bill must be accounted for as it was a heavy consideration towards the bills final incarnation[21].

Link the low number of crushed vehicles to how some have said it is a failure

The view of the Police towards the Bill and how they didn't support some of its ideas.

This caused some - who deem this number low - to acc However, this low number has also been cited by those who deem the Bill a success

One indicator of the Acts impact/ success was given in 2017 by the then Minister of Justice, Andrew Little. His statement that the “boy racer law isn’t on anyone’s radar at the moment [15]” reveals that the act has not had a significantly negative or ineffectual impact to warrant further amendments. Whilst this is far from a glowing endorsement of the legislation it goes some way to refuting the claims made that this legislation is completely ineffectual.


External Links edit


References edit

  1. ^ a b c "Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  2. ^ a b "Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill — First Reading - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  3. ^ "Schedule of divided bills, 49th Parliament - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  4. ^ "Sentencing (Vehicle Confiscation) Amendment Bill, Summary Proceedings (Vehicle Seizure) Amendment Bill, Privacy Amendment Bill — Third Readings - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  5. ^ a b "Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill 42-2 (2009), Government Bill – New Zealand Legislation". www.legislation.govt.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Sentencing (Vehicle Confiscation) Amendment Act 2009 No 37, Public Act Contents – New Zealand Legislation". www.legislation.govt.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  7. ^ "Summary Proceedings (Vehicle Seizure) Amendment Bill - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  8. ^ "Summary Proceedings (Vehicle Seizure) Amendment Bill - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  9. ^ a b c "Summary Proceedings (Vehicle Seizure) Amendment Act 2009 No 38 (as at 13 February 2012), Public Act Contents – New Zealand Legislation". www.legislation.govt.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  10. ^ a b c "Privacy Amendment Act 2009 No 39, Public Act – New Zealand Legislation". www.legislation.govt.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  11. ^ "Privacy Amendment Act 2009 No 39, Public Act Contents – New Zealand Legislation". www.legislation.govt.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  12. ^ New Zealand Police (2007). Strategy Road Policing to 2010. New Zealand Government. pp. 1–24.
  13. ^ "Strategies and Plans". New Zealand Police. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  14. ^ a b c "5. Street Racing, Illegal—Deterrents - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  15. ^ a b c d e "Just three cars destroyed under 'Crusher' Collins' law". Stuff. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  16. ^ nicholas.jones@nzherald.co.nz @nickjonesnzer, Nicholas Jones Nicholas Jones is an investigative reporter at the New Zealand Herald (2016-02-15). "Collins' crackdown on boy racers working". ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  17. ^ Figures Pertaining to "Racing" as a contributing factor to a Crash. Office of Judith Collins. 2016.
  18. ^ "5. Street Racing, Illegal—Deterrents - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  19. ^ a b "Boy racer offences down 35 per cent". The Beehive. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  20. ^ a b c New Zealand Police (2009). Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill And Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill Submission of the New Zealand Police Association. pp. 1–15.
  21. ^ "Parliament Brief: The legislative process - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
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