Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers (Electronic Records) Amendment Bill

on behalf of Andrew Bayly: I move, That the Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers (Electronic Records) Amendment Bill be now read a first time.

Mr Speaker—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: You need to nominate a committee.

I nominate the finance committee to consider the bill.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Finance and Expenditure Committee—thank you.

The Finance and Expenditure Committee.

This bill is a bill on behalf of Andrew Bayly, and I want to acknowledge Andrew Bayly, my colleague, for bringing this piece of legislation to Parliament. This bill is something which has come about through conversations with the police and also very much an awareness of the serious issues that are facing New Zealanders on a day-to-day basis in regards to stolen property.

This piece of legislation is about updating and amending the Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Act to ensure that it is fit for purpose in the 21st century, to give the police the tools that they need so they can crack down on stolen property which is being put through second-hand dealers and pawnbrokers. It gives the police more tools, it helps them to be smart on crime, and it helps to ensure that more offenders who are stealing and robbing are actually held to account.

Stolen property is often disposed of through second-hand dealers. Second-hand dealers are prolific buyers of stolen goods and, in doing so, these second-hand dealers are facilitating dishonesty offending, and that is why we have the second-hand dealers and pawnbrokers legislation.

The legislation has a number of requirements upon second-hand dealers to ensure that they keep records of who is selling items to them. It ensures that they have to keep records of serial numbers so that the police can then go and take those details and hold offenders to account where there are identified people who have been selling identified items which have been stolen. But this legislation has not kept pace with the pace of change.

Currently, the legislation, whilst it requires a record to be kept, it does not require this record to be kept in an electronic form. This means that police are spending a significant amount of time dealing with handwritten records which they then have to put into their systems to check serial numbers against their records of stolen property so that they’re able to work out if it is a stolen item, and then to work out who the offender may be or may not be.

Over the past two years, police have logged 4,000 dealer checks nationally, which equates to an estimated minimum of 4,000 hours of police time—that is, police physically going to second-hand dealers, taking their written documentation, and then putting it into an electronic format so that they can then use it in conjunction with their other tools. The reality is this is taking an enormous amount of police time, and it’s something which needs to be changed. The solution here in this piece of legislation is to require the second-hand dealers and pawnbrokers to have that information in an electronic form.

In Counties Manukau, the police have already developed a tool which they’ve worked on in conjunction with second-hand dealers called SNAC, or the serial number automated checker. Working alongside these second-hand dealers, they’ve been able to get more of this information put into an electronic form, which they then are able to check against the system as to what has been stolen. This has allowed hundreds of investigations to be reactivated due to the SNAC stolen item notification system. There’s been dozens of new charges laid, hundreds of items returned to owners, and many investigations are still in progress. Examples include where there were bicycle thefts happening where the offender was caught, and by putting that into the tool, they were then able to find that that person had been dealing other bicycles and had been trying to do that through the system by going around different stores, selling stolen bicycles in these stores.

The tool has been incredibly effective and is something which this piece of legislation seeks to take to the next level by requiring the standardisation of these records across the country. It would allow more victims of crime to have their property recovered and returned to them. It would quickly identify known property-owners through the system who have stolen goods. It would help identify more offenders, as they often go from store to store, and when those systems are manual, it doesn’t allow police to be able to check in an adequately fast time to be able to understand who is going from store to store, dealing stolen items. It would reduce the risk of dealers inadvertently trading in stolen items and would increase the resolution rate that police have in investigating property crime.

This is a piece of legislation which, as I said, makes a real difference because it ensures that this legislation is up to speed and is keeping pace with the change. We believe, on this side of the House, that that is something which will make a real difference to the many thousands of New Zealanders who have had stolen items taken from them and who don’t often get the resolution that they actually need.

There may be some challenges which this could cause, such as shifting the trade for stolen items, and, of course, there would be some increased burden on second-hand dealers in terms of making sure that their systems are electronic and are able to be put across to the police. But what is important here is that we ensure that the systems and the tools that we provide to our police are the best possible so that we are able to reduce the number of items which are stolen being inadvertently traded through the system and there not being a resolution for the rightful owner of that property.

This piece of legislation is something which police, as I said before, have already been trialling in an initiative in Counties Manukau. It’s something which has been getting significant success and is something which does need to be rolled out on a national basis. The bill, which is in the name of Andrew Bayly, not only includes obligations on second-hand dealers but also, if they do not provide the information in electronic form, there will be appropriate fines and consequences for them for not complying with this piece of legislation, and that is to ensure that they are actually appropriately dealing with the goods that go through their stores.

This piece of legislation is endorsed by the National Party. We want to give our police all the tools that they can have and all the tools they need to be able to tackle property crime, and we believe that this is part of that solution. We look forward to all parties in this House supporting this bill to select committee. I commend this bill to the House.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Members, this debate is interrupted and set down for resumption next sitting day. The House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. tomorrow. Pō mārie.

Debate interrupted.

The House adjourned at 10.01 p.m.