The Justice Committee has examined the Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill and recommends that it be passed. We recommend all amendments unanimously.

The Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill seeks to address the harm caused by criminal activity, including that caused by gangs, and make communities safer. It would create new powers and offences that aim to better prevent and respond to the harm caused by criminal offending. This includes the harm commonly associated with gang activities, such as money laundering and dangerous behaviour on New Zealand roads.

The bill would amend the following four Acts:

• the Crimes Act 1961, to include a new offence of discharging a firearm with intent to intimidate

• the Land Transport Act 1998, to expand the powers of enforcement officers to seize and impound vehicles in response to dangerous, reckless, and aggravated careless driving

• the Search and Surveillance Act 2012, to provide two new powers:

  • a warrant power to search for and seize weapons during a gang conflict

  • a power to seize cash found in suspicious circumstances and believed to be over $10,000

• the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009, to prohibit cash transactions over a specified value for certain high-value goods.

As part of our consideration of the bill, we have examined its consistency with principles of legislative quality. We have no issues regarding the legislation’s design to bring to the attention of the House.

This commentary covers the main amendments we recommend to the bill as introduced. All of our proposed amendments are to the Search and Surveillance Act. We do not discuss minor or technical amendments.

Clause 20 would insert sections 18A to 18F as new subpart 6A of Part 2 of the Search and Surveillance Act, providing for warrants to search for and seize weapons during a gang conflict.

Clause 22, which would amend section 131 of the Act, relates to the identification and notice requirements for a person exercising a search power.

Proposed new section 131(1)(b)(ii) sets out what the person exercising the search power must do before or on initial entry when exercising a warrant issued under new section 18D(2) or (3). The person would need to provide the occupier with a redacted copy of the warrant, showing only the details of the place or vehicle being searched. If that was not reasonably practicable, the person would need to inform the occupier how a copy of the redacted warrant could be made available within 7 days.

We note that this new provision would require less information to be disclosed to the occupier than for existing warrants under the Act. We investigated why a warrant issued under new section 18D would be treated differently. We concluded that there is no clear rationale for why the occupant should not receive a redacted version of the warrant before it is executed. Therefore, we recommend amending section 131 to reflect this.

We also recommend that the notice requirements in relation to the search of vehicles be dealt with separately, and that new subsections (iii) and (iv) be inserted. These new provisions would require that when the search power is exercised under a warrant issued under new section 18D(4) or (5) in relation to a vehicle, the person in charge of the vehicle must, if reasonably practicable, be provided with a copy of the warrant redacted to show only the authorisation to undertake the search in respect of the vehicle. However, if this is not reasonably practicable in the circumstances, certain information must be provided to the person, including advice about how a copy of the redacted warrant can be made available within 7 days after the date of the search.

Clause 33 would insert new sections 123A to 123E dealing with the seizure of $10,000 or more in cash.

Proposed new section 123B specifies the process for seizing cash found in suspicious circumstances that is equivalent to, or more than, the cash seizure threshold amount. The bill defines “cash seizure threshold amount” as NZ$10,000, or an equivalent amount. New section 123B(4) would enable a constable or a person assisting them to seize the cash if all of the following conditions were met:

• The constable reasonably believed the cash was an amount equal to or over the cash seizure threshold amount.

• The constable was not satisfied with the explanations given by the person possessing the cash in response to questions asked under section 123B(3). The questions are about the origin of, and intended use for, the cash.

• The constable had reasonable grounds to suspect that the cash was not lawfully or legally sourced, or was to be used for an unlawful or dishonest purpose.

We recommend amending section 123B to require the person possessing the cash to be advised of the constable’s power to seize the cash. We consider that this is necessary given the consequences of a person providing unsatisfactory answers to questions about the cash.

We note that section 104 of the Act enables an issuing officer to require a search warrant report. The report must contain information about the use of the search warrant, including whether it was executed and, if so, the type of material that was seized. It must also contain information on any other powers exercised along with the execution of the warrant, and any criminal proceedings relating to any evidence seized.

We consider that a judge issuing a warrant under proposed new section 18D should also be able to request a search warrant report. We recommend inserting new section 18G to provide for this, which would be similar to the search warrant report that may be required by an issuing officer in respect of other types of warrants under section 104.

Section 104(2)(b) of the Act requires the report to indicate whether the execution of the warrant resulted in the seizure of evidential material under section 123 of the Act (Seizure of items in plain view). We note that cash seized under new section 123B could also constitute evidential material. Therefore, we recommend amending section 104(2)(b) to require a search warrant report to also contain information on whether any cash was seized as evidential material under new section 123B.