McKelvie Ian: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcKelvie Ian: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 15 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:9971. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): I was very tempted listening to the previous speech to seek the leave of the House to give Richard Prosser my 10 minutes but I will not. Firstly I wish to—Hon Ruth Dyson: Oh go on.IAN McKELVIE: You would be bored by the end of it Ruth. You would be bored by the end of it. Firstly I wish to congratulate Todd McClay on bringing this bill the Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill to the House. I can fully understand his reasons for doing so. I have been in Government offices when these patched gang members have arrived at the door. There is no doubt they are intimidating and they intend to be. I have witnessed the unease of the people attempting to assist them and I think this bill is an outstanding addition to the tool kit that will allow the police and our communities to lessen the impact that gangs have on our society.I do not understand the vehement opposition to this bill by Labour and the Greens. They talk about what we should have done and what we should be doing. They have had years to do it in and did nothing. They have also had the opportunity to put these great ideas into members’ bills; they have not done that either.Andrew Little: This is not one of our ideas.IAN McKELVIE: I did not say this is one of your ideas. Your compatriots said it was one of their ideas.I am going to concentrate on the intimidation factor as I speak tonight as I realise that in itself this bill will not put an end to gang activity. It will not stop people joining gangs it will not get them into legitimate work and it will not prevent crime. It will be a disincentive to all those things however. But more important it will make the lives of the people who work behind the counters in our hospitals schools Housing New Zealand offices and other Government departments a little more pleasant as they deal with the requests of these people. It will make fellow parents of the local school a little more comfortable.Surprising as it may seem the Rangitīkei electorate is not immune to gangs. Odd as it may seem I have schools in my electorate that have asked gang members to remove their gang insignia when they come on to the school grounds. Fortunately for those schools and the children in those schools those gang members have complied out of respect for the school. Had they not complied this bill would have given the school the ability to exclude them forcing them to comply. I think that is a great opportunity for our community and great for all the law-abiding citizens of New Zealand. I do not think that it is in the interests of our young people to be exposed to the gang influence and every little thing we can do to limit that exposure or the visual presence of gangs in our community is positive.Mr McClay in his introduction talked of the gangs in Rotorua. I have first-hand knowledge of these people and of the outstanding Rotorua police who recovered my iPad intact from a Rotorua gang drug house. It had been stolen from my branded car—not a car with insignia—in the Taumarunui area. I think that just points out what a great job our New Zealand police do when dealing with these kinds of people. It is quite a challenge for our communities as well.If banning the advertising and branding of cigarettes is going to have an effect on the number of smokers in society then surely the same logic could be applied to this piece of legislation. I contest that the Opposition’s view which is that this bill will not make a difference on that basis is nonsense. We concentrate for a long time on banning things in this country and we clearly ban them for good reason. I think exactly the same logic applies to this.During the course of the select committee process on this bill we had some very positive submissions. The Murupara Area School submission has been referred to at least three times now even by one of the speakers in opposition to the bill. I would remind Mr Faafoi and Mr Goff that this bill does in fact have some teeth and it will make a difference. I do not believe that their communities have been done any favours by their opposing it.Every activity that we undertake to make the activities of gangs a little more difficult makes a difference and protecting people from intimidation is a very worthy ideal in life. It is akin to a dislike of bullying as intimidation is in fact a form of bullying. Much has been said tonight about the measures contained in the bill the naming of specific gangs covered in the bill the way in which future gangs can be added and the types of premises included in the bill with a very clear definition of such and I do not need to add to that further. Again I want to congratulate Todd McClay and thank the fellow members of the Law and Order Committee under the very capable leadership of Jacqui Dean for the work they have done on this topic.Gang issues in New Zealand will never be readily overcome. I do not think any of these issues with gangs that inflict misery on our society will be overcome but every time that we chip away at their opportunity makes a big difference to our community. I congratulate Mr McClay again on bringing this bill to the House. I think it will do its little piece in impacting on the activities of gangs in our community. Thank you.