Throughout the year, Mitchell has been saying he plans to bring forward legislation to give police new powers to seize vehicles from boy racers. He made the comments on several occasions following boy racer events.
In June, after an event in Levin where more than 200 cars gathered and two police officers were pelted with rocks and bottles when they tried to intervene, Mitchell said he wanted to be able to “seize the vehicles and keep them”.
Hundreds joined another event in Wairarapa in October, resulting in six people being arrested and two cars being impounded. After that, Mitchell said current legislation could be strengthened. At the moment, vehicles cannot be destroyed — crushed — until a third offence has been committed.
“As a Government, we are going to make sure [the police] have got additional tools, that it’s going to be much easier to seize these vehicles. They might get them back, but they will be contained, they will be crushed down to a small piece of metal, they won’t be driveable or useable.”
Mitchell said he was working with Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and was confident legislation would have its first reading before the end of the year.
But with Parliament wrapping up next week, there’s been no sign of legislation being introduced.
In a statement, Mitchell told the Herald “despite our intention of introducing legislation this year, we continue to work through what is a very complicated policy process”.
“We continue to work at pace and will not compromise providing a high quality and comprehensive set of tools for our police to use to keep Kiwis safe.”
Speaking further outside of the House, Mitchell said the legislation had been “probably more complex than we anticipated” and wouldn’t be introduced until early next year.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell says the legislation will now be introduced next year. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He said he was committed to getting it introduced by the end of the year but after working with other agencies “it became apparent to us it was quite complex”.
Mitchell disagreed with Andersen, Labour’s police spokeswoman, who called it “just another broken promise from Mark Mitchell”.
Cars were impounded when police cracked down on eight boy racer meets in Christchurch and Rolleston. Photo / New Zealand Police
“It’s a commitment, it’s a commitment that remains,” Mitchell said. “I couldn’t meet the deadline of getting it into the House this year quite simply because of the reasons I have given you, it’s actually really complex and we’ve got to get it right.”
Andersen said police already had a greater workload due to needing to enforce the Government’s new gang patch ban.
“That takes away from other work police would be doing, such as policing boy racer events,” she said.
The Labour MP also raised the possibility of the Government not meeting its promise of delivering an extra 500 police officers by November next year — two years after the coalition Government was formed.
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers last week warned it may take more than two years to train additional officers, with June 2026 considered a “more accurate picture of the target”.
Mitchell has claimed Chambers was instead referring to funding for the 500 new police being provided in 2026. He said police were “fully committed” to the target and he and Chambers were “fully aligned”.
“Police have not shifted off the commitment to deliver the 500 in November, that has never moved,” he said.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
