Goudie Sandra: Crimes Amendment Bill Local Government Amendment Bill Sentencing Amendment Bill (No 3) — Third Readings 
Goudie Sandra: Crimes Amendment Bill Local Government Amendment Bill Sentencing Amendment Bill (No 3) — Third Readings 
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SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 I am proud to speak to the gangs and organised crime legislation particularly as the bills go through their last stage before they are enacted. I acknowledge and thank the members of the Law and Order Committee. They worked to progress this bill in a timely manner and I thank them for their contribution and the work they did in this regard. 
The Gangs and Organised Crime Bill—which has now been divided into three bills—is a small bill but it packs a mighty punch. People throughout the country spoke loud and clear about the need for change and the need to address law and order issues. But at the same time we are addressing many of those other issues referred to by the previous speaker Te Ururoa Flavell. He is quite right—it is a two-pronged approach. This legislation is just one of the steps we are taking to give the police the tools to deal with the current criminal issues in relation to gangs. 
National listened and this legislation is one of the many changes we have made to keep people safe in their homes and on the streets. This legislation is gang-buster legislation and whether the gangs wear leather jackets bandanas or white collars—and I want to emphasis the white-collar aspect; I will make reference to that again shortly—it will deal with gangs across the spectrum. 
So what does the legislation do? It is about interception warrants for police lower thresholds for a specified offence for interception warrants reduced evidential burden to prove participation in an organised criminal group increased penalties removal orders and criminal association as an aggravating factor at sentencing. These are the tools that are the arsenal of this gang-buster bill. Police need those tools. They need that support. 
If we look back in history we see that we had the bookies in the 1940s and 1950s we had cannabis in the 1960s and the 1970s and we also had heroin in the 1970s and the 1980s. Now we have methamphetamine otherwise known as P. As the face of criminal offending has changed so too has the face of gangs. Gangs now exist to make money and exert power over others and that is with several thousand patched gang members and many more associates. Opposing gangs will even get together to further their primary interest—that is their business interests—for making money and exerting that dominance over others using violence fear and intimidation. 
Gangs have shown that they are not above committing murder. Members of the House can tell us firsthand of incidents where gangs have shown that murder is an activity that they are not above indulging in. Gangs can be as innovative and crafty as anyone else. They keep up to speed with technological changes and use those changes to best effect. 
There is a growing blurring of the lines between what we all know as gangs—gangs whose members wear hoodies with leathers tattoos bandanas and the like—and a much a sleeker well-dressed business-savvy professional who is fully comfortable in a white collar. Gangs have accountants. They have lawyers. In some cases they even have media advisers. Gangs will partner with legitimate business such as finance transport private security entertainment real estate and the like all the while running their real business of violence extortion drug dealing and money-laundering. If people get in the way they will deal to them as has been said quite clearly in this House. 
Gangs now operate with a new level of sophistication and involvement in communities in order to give the appearance that they are harmless and to show that they are groups with a strong community spirit. Well other members might like to get lulled into thinking that but the next minute the gangs will be dealing out the back door to one of their kids. Then what do members say to that? There is nothing they would like more than being able to get our kids hooked on P. That is totally devastating to our communities. We all know how bad that it is and it could not get any worse. So we have no tolerance of that in terms of what we can do to provide police with the tools to deal to it. 
I ask members to consider a gang called the Killer Beez. It has its own hip-hop record label called Colourway Records. What does it do? It makes music videos—recruitment advertisements for gangs thinly disguised as music videos that are played on mainstream TV. Do we like that? Do we think that is a good thing? Do we think that is great? They have websites. They use Facebook and they have branded franchises. This is what gangs today have. They have become a little more sophisticated than what we knew of the gangs in the 1950s 1960s 1970s and 1980s. They are much more technologically aware than they used to be. 
Gangs indulge in violence and intimidation and in creating their own brand of misery with methamphetamine while they are stuffing their back pockets and their bank balances and building up their assets. Well we are going to deal to them through their assets. We will take their assets and their money every time we catch them and convict them for criminal offending. We will use that money to make sure we deal to other gangs for dealing in that same area of criminal activity. That is covered in the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act which was also a great step in the right direction. 
Let us hit them where it hurts and that is in the pocket. Let us give the police the tools to pick them up. That is what this legislation will do. It will give police the tools to delve further into gangs and into people associated with gangs so that they cannot escape that oversight. We have only to look to see how easy it is for gangs to lure our young people. I think that this is where the other actions we have taken in other portfolios across the whole of the Government are addressing the concerns raised by the previous speaker Te Ururoa Flavell. 
This legislation along with many other changes deals with gangs as announced by the Prime Minister John Key and championed by Judith Collins the Minister of Police and the Minister of Corrections. We will take gangs’ assets we will take their money and we will bust their trade. We could not do anything better than that. This legislation is gang-buster legislation. We will hit them where it hurts—in the pocket. 
I am delighted that this legislation about gangs and organised crime is another step in the right direction for dealing to gangs their associates and the criminal activity they indulge in which threatens our communities and our young people and makes life a misery for many many families. I am delighted to be able to progress this legislation.