Government passes law cracking down on street racers

The Antisocial Road Use Legislation Amendment Bill, which was first introduced last July, has passed its third and final reading in Parliament on Tuesday night.

The omnibus bill creates a new offence for "frightening and intimidating convoys", as well as extra powers to crack down on fleeing from Police, illegal street races, burnouts, disorderly dirt bike gatherings, and siren battles.

It would make vehicle forfeiture or destruction more common, by setting it as a presumptive sentence.

This meant in most cases, courts would be required to seize and either sell or destroy a vehicle involved in street races, fleeing police, or convoys.

The bill would also increase the fines, and let police close off roads and other public areas to manage gatherings.

Standing in for transport minister Chris Bishop, associate transport minister James Meager said New Zealanders had had enough of the "chaos", and the activities were not harmless thrills but damaging and destructive.

"This bill is about restoring order, restoring confidence, and restoring the basic right of people to feel safe in their own streets," he said.

"This bill does not target car enthusiasts or legal car meetings. It targets illegal, antisocial behaviour."

Referring to the siren battles, which now carry a penalty of $300, Meager said people who had submitted on the bill had spoken of sleepless nights due to the behaviour.

"Reminds me a lot of Parliament sometimes. Maybe we need some siren battle legislations here in Parliament," Meager said.

An amendment introduced in the Committee of the Whole House stage carries over existing provisions to prevent vehicles from being sold.

Speaking in support of the bill, Labour's transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said police needed to have the tools to deal with antisocial road user behaviour.

"This is an opportunity to have a bill that says that simply will not be tolerated, that it must cease, it must stop, and that we're prepared to give the police the tools to be able to do that," he said.

Utikere said Labour did have some concerns around the bill's workability, primarily that police were not properly resourced.

"One only needs to look back to the person who is colloquially known as Crusher Collins, in terms of the nickname that she got, and the inability to deliver a huge number of cars that were actually crushed."

Utikere's invocation of Judith Collins' nickname, which the recently-departed MP had expressed mixed feelings over, drew groans from the government benches.

National MP Carl Bates was all too happy to take up the mantle, using his 20-second long contribution on the bill to already envisage headlines as the first car was crushed.

"Crusher Carl, let's get this done."

Utikere's Labour colleague Duncan Webb struggled to see how the provisions to crack down on convoys would work in practice, particularly as recklessness would need to be proven.

"I don't think there's ever going to be a situation in which this particular offence will be proven. It may well be that what the police really want is an ability to sieze these vehicles because they reasonably believe that's the case, but that will run into problems of its own."

Webb also found the definition of convoy "truly bizarre", as it could capture people who were not intentionally part of a convoy.

"If Lawrence Xu-Nan's driving down the road, and I'm like 'I want to hang out with Lawrence', and I chase him, drive behind him, it's a convoy that Lawrence is part of and he doesn't know he's part of it, which is absolute madness."

The Green Party opposed the bill, with MP Julie-Anne Genter saying the legislation was more of a marketing and PR exercise than something that would make communities safer.

She said existing legislation was already leading to a decrease in antisocial behaviour.

"Police already had the powers, and many of the offences already existed, so we've seen demonstrably it is possible to take action to prevent this antisocial road use."

She said young people under the age of 25 did not have fully-formed frontal lobes and were likely to take risks, and people who did stupid things were not deterred by the consequences.

"I take offence," said National's Tom Rutherford.

"We know you're over 25," interjected deputy speaker Barbara Kuriger.

Te Pāti Māori and independent MPs Tākuta Ferris and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi also opposed the bill.