Not that long ago, I had a cop pull me over.. he informed me of these new laws (Not just P-Platers.. but street racing as well). He informed me that he "liked my car, if I do anything wrong he will arrange for it to be confiscated and I wont get a chance to buy it back at auction". I felt somewhat intimidated, but by knowing the police system, he would have done a check prior to pulling me over to find a pretty clean record. This lead me to believe that this system would be open to abuse, cops could get access to nice cars really cheaply, especially if they know the auctioneers who will deal with the 2nd round confiscation.
I've even heard of a case where a car stereo was removed from a car that was taken in newcastle a few years back. It was nasty stuff.
I don't mind police getting powers to perhaps sway a few people that might be scared of the law and consequences. I think they have made some ground but most P-Platers are now buying $2000 or less cars to drive around in until they are off their P's. These cars are typically less safe, less maintained (as they are going to scrap or thrash it to death) and loosing these cheaper cars isn't a big problem. I don't see many P'platers on the coast in anything 10years or less on average. They probably wont have P-PLates on when they are doing it anyway,
If P-Platers could buy their dream cars, they would care more about this law... those lucky enough to have something expensive to loose it for a short period whilst they probably will be suspended from driving... still not big enough.. sadly there will always be someone silly enough to jump in the car, floor it and kill themselves and others.. Anything that would be effective would have to lashing in the main street and parents can't even smack their kids in public anymore... So I think ultimately this type of thing just serves a "we are doing something about it" to cover the voters...