Gilmore Aaron: Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill — Third Reading 
Gilmore Aaron: Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:2966] 
AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 I rise to support the Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill. This is an important bill especially for the people of Wanganui. It is a local bill for the good folks of Wanganui and it has been drafted for local conditions—so much so that the people of Wanganui want it and support it in significant numbers. A majority of people support it in fact. As I understand it the bill has the support of 65 percent of the good people of Wanganui. Few laws in this land pass with 65 percent support. 
Such support in the community exists because the people of Wanganui experienced a horrific occurrence—the horrific homicide of Jhia Te Tua. The homicide moved the good people of Wanganui. A 2-year-old child was lost to the world as the result of a gang revenge attack. Six gang members were charged with this despicable crime and it moved the good people of Wanganui so much that they came up with this bill. The bill will ban gang insignia in signposted areas as directed by council by-law. The definition of “gang insignia” covers signs symbols and representations—things like that—and items of clothing that have representations attached. 
I will now talk a little about my own experiences with gang insignia. The streets I grew up in in Christchurch were frequented by gangs. When my family moved to a house in Parklands after spending many years in Aranui I thought we had left the gangs behind—but no we had not. We lived at No. 18 which was about midway down the street. My parents still live there. We lived down a long driveway. At one end of my street was a gang house that was home to the notorious white supremacy gang the Harris Brothers. At the other end of my street lived Mangu Kaha the local branch of the Black Power gang. When I went to pick up the milk money every morning and every night I used to pat myself to check that no one had stolen it. My parents told me that it was my job to protect the milk money from the local gangs. 
Having two gangs in the street was despicable. The Harris Brothers gang was a bunch of bad people. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: I lived down the road from them. They were horrible. 
AARON GILMORE 
: We will get to that. It is an interesting story. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: I lived in Hoon Hay Road just around the corner. 
AARON GILMORE 
: That is right. Boy did we have some fun in our street because of those gangs! Every kid in our street was bullied into supporting one or other of those gangs. Many were forced into wearing colours. I can remember the gang raps of Ice-T Public Enemy and many others that became the poetry of our street. I recall one poem vividly: “My colors my honour my colors my all with my colors upon me one soldier stands tall … I am a nightmare walking psychopath talking king of my jungle just a gangster stalking.” Those are the words the gangs in my street used on a daily basis. I saw that attitude every day when I was growing up. It is that attitude towards gang insignia that the good people of Wanganui have stepped up to do something about. The locals have been heavily consulted on about this bill. They want to try to stop gangs and are prepared to do something to achieve that. 
My own experience with gangs saw my street become a gangland war zone. Kids with the wrong colours got bashed when they were walking home from school including members of my own family who were bashed for wearing the wrong colours while walking down my street. Kids were too scared to go to school or they travelled with large groups for safety. For 3 years running my street was named the most dangerous place to live in Christchurch. I wish we had had a bill like this then. It would have stopped truancy broken limbs and tears. It would have given some hope to the kids going to school or to the local shops that if they were part of some legitimate club they were not going to be identified and bashed by one of those two gangs just because they were wearing blue CanTeen kids’ bandannas or local rugby club caps. The red and blue colours of the two gangs were such strong colours that the colour of our local league club Parklands was purple. As members will know purple is a mix of red and blue. The local league club made its colours purple because it represents the mix of the red and blue coming together. 
This bill might not solve the problem of gangs but it might. It might solve this problem. In my community where I returned to live a few years ago we were saved from gangs because of changing economic circumstances as the member for Epsom Rodney Hide was talking about before. One gang in my street won Lotto and left the area. They won $1 million. It was the Harris Brothers gang—the associates the member for Epsom talked about before. They left for the other side of town. They left my street and disappeared and I was happy about that. My family was happy the street was happy and the neighbourhood was happy. There was no more fighting over turf the other gang did not feel like wearing patches in our local neighbourhood and the problems went away. 
This bill might be the winning Lotto ticket for the good people of Wanganui. It might be able to keep some gangs away from violence. This bill will probably not stop gangs—it will not stop them outright—but it will ensure that gangs will not be able to promote themselves openly. They will not be able to strut around like peacocks in their colours. They will not be able to bash some poor kid simply because he or she was forced to wear a gang colour and found himself or herself in the wrong part of the city street or town. If this bill does that for even one kid then it would make his or her family happy and that kid happy and I think the good people of Wanganui would feel collectively that it is a better place. 
Let us now talk about the concerns that were raised on some parts of this bill. There are concerns about minor issues of interpretation and implementation. The Opposition over there has criticised those areas of the bill and puts them forward as reasons why this bill should not go ahead. Well this bill has been designed for and implemented by the good people of Wanganui. It is their bill and they by an overwhelming number want it. This bill creates signposted areas to be put forward by local by-laws to create neutral turf for gangs and areas where one is not a gang member but a citizen—a citizen of Wanganui and of New Zealand—and one of the good people of Wanganui. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Who wrote this rubbish? Who wrote this speech? 
AARON GILMORE 
: I wrote it. The bill allows for plenty of latitude for local police to modify over time how the law will operate. This allows the community to feel safe and not be intimidated by the presence of a gang patch. If gang patches are removed people can begin to respect each other for who they are not for the patch they wear. That is a positive step in the right direction. 
This bill importantly does not create fear; it reduces it. Removing the potential for people to be afraid of what they see represented by a gang patch will reduce fear in the good people of Wanganui and I applaud that having grown up in the climate of a community where gangs pranced around like peacocks and as per my quote earlier saw their colours as badges of pride. Their patches are the IDs of their army. The gangs see themselves as soldiers not criminals. If we can reduce a little of that arrogance then this entire House should support the bill. 
The hard-working local member for Wanganui Mr Chester Borrows put forward this bill as a local bill. Not all gang members are criminals and not all gang members wear patches—but many do. The good people of Wanganui believe that this bill may help fix the problem. It is part of a tool box of other things that will help fix the problems that exist in gangland Wanganui. I say to people that if the majority of people in Wanganui want the ability to have this tool to help fix their gang problems then I applaud that. Who are we to deny them when an overwhelming number—65 percent—of the good people of Wanganui want this tool box in order to be able to control their own problems and to keep out the patches that exist in their neighbourhoods? 
If this bill works in Wanganui it may create a model that other communities may be interested in. Other communities may be worried about gangs the patches they wear and the culture of fear that is created by their wearing of the gang patches. If time and time again we see that this bill works then I will look forward to the members on the other side of the House commenting that the bill is a good tool and that it does work. I believe that this bill will work. I believe it because of my own experience in a local environment. I saw what happened with two gangs in my community. When one left and the other stopped wearing gang patches the violence stopped. That is the reason why I commend this bill to the House.