Legislation cracking down on gangs has passed its second reading in Parliament and Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says it will become law by Christmas, giving police extra powers to deal with an issue he says creates “fear and misery” across New Zealand.
Paul Goldsmith
“Gangs have, for some time, been allowed to behave as if they’re above the law. They are not,” Goldsmith said during debate on the Gangs Legislation Amendment Bill.
He said the bill seeks to prevent the violence and anti-social behaviour associated with gangs from becoming normalised in New Zealand society.
“It prohibits the display of gang insignia in public places, gives police the ability to issue dispersal notices to gatherings that disrupt the public, it creates new non-consorting orders and amends the Sentencing Act to make gang membership, on its own, an aggravating factor,” he said.
The gang legislation is a central pillar of the government’s law-and-order agenda, which also includes tougher sentencing guidelines, youth bootcamps and reintroducing the three strikes law.
Goldsmith said the bill will go through the parliamentary process and become law by December.
“The impact of this bill will be felt before Christmas.”
Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said the legislation did nothing to address the underlying causes of gang violence and it would be unenforceable in many rural communities where police numbers are stretched.
“Banning gang patches typifies the approach that this government takes to law and order. It is cosmetic and ornamental,” she said.
“Treating gangs in isolation and demonising them and taking their patches off does absolutely nothing for the next generation of young people who need hope, who need something to look and hold out for – that things will get better.”
Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter said the legislation ignored lessons from the report of the Royal Commission into abuse in state care, which was released last month and detailed how most gang members had been mistreated while in state care. Carter said treating survivors of abuse as “bottom-feeding criminals” would do nothing to make communities safer.
“The conditions of poverty, housing insecurity and making it harder for Kiwis to live are creating the perfect conditions for gangs to thrive,” she said.
“We know from experience that children in New Zealand who are in state care, stripped of their culture and rights, are on a pathway to prison and gangs. We need to get serious about the causes, because if we don’t acknowledge the causes, we won’t fix anything.”
Carter said police would use their new powers “to search the homes of people who are going to the supermarket or to pick up their kids from school, not because of what they have done, but because of what they might, possibly, maybe, potentially do. “I want you to ask yourself, ‘would you rather be walking down a dark alley and see a patched member or a police officer?’” she said.
“For many people in New Zealand, they would feel safer alone with a patched member than the police, and we need to ask ourselves why.”
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