McKelvie Ian: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcKelvie Ian: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12479. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei):I do not know what it is about the Greens but every time they speak in this House it reminds me of that song that goes: “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way” because clearly they have been here for 20-odd years and have never had to put their heads on the block.I just want to comment on the fact that this bill the Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill really has been a fascinating study of the legislative process in action. No legislation in this House will ever be perfect. No legislation that can ever be passed will be perfect. No legislation has ever solved all the problems in their entirety. This piece of work is no exception. But contrary to the protestations of Labour and clearly now David Clendon it will make a difference. It will put some curbs on the activities of gangs. It will give our police force another tool in their armoury. It will give some peace of mind to those people working on the front line of our public services. It will give them some protection from intimidation—the intimidation caused when a patched gang member leans on the counter demanding service. I have seen it. I have seen it in public sector buildings I have seen it in councils and it is not pleasant. The bill will enable our schools to ban patches from their grounds.The gang insignia bill was introduced to this House from the members’ ballot by the now Hon Todd McClay in response to issues that were affecting his electorate. Todd McClay then became a Minister and passed the bill to one of our ex-coppers Mark Mitchell. Who better to steer this bill through the House? Who knows better than an ex-copper the damage these gangs cause to our communities?This bill falls clearly into the orbit of the Law and Order Committee and further complements the great result that this Government has achieved through Ministers Tolley Collins and Borrows and formerly Simon Power. The Law and Order Committee by select committee standards I have witnessed in this House operates pretty well. It operates under a very good chair and an equally good deputy chair and frankly we would normally have a very good relationship with the other members of that select committee as well. We generally do not cause Phil Goff to have to shout quite as loudly as he was shouting in this House earlier in the day.The results of the law and order policies of this Government have been spectacular. There has been a 30 percent drop in youth crime a fantastic improvement in police resources through the use of technology on the beat—up to in fact Feilding police station having a saving of 20 percent of the total force in Feilding’s time. That has happened in about 8 months.Kris Faafoi: That’s because you’ve got fewer cops.IAN McKELVIE: We listen to Mr Faafoi bleating on about the reduction in the police budget but those figures make a nonsense of that. We have also seen—Kris Faafoi: I’ll table them then. They’re the Minister’s figures.IAN McKELVIE: You are most certainly welcome to table them. We have also seen vastly improved rehabilitation and retraining of prisoners which is making a big difference to the future of those people. These initiatives and achievements complement the further introduction of legislation in this area including the Bail Amendment Bill the Juries (Jury Service and Protection of Particulars of Jury List Information) Amendment Bill the Administration of Community Sentences and Orders Bill the Corrections Amendment Bill and many more. The gang insignia bill sits right alongside those as another tool in the tool box of the New Zealand Police.Crime is an insidious thing. It can have a dramatic effect on a victim. Equally it can go unnoticed for years. Crime in our communities is often inflicted on the most vulnerable in our society. You see criminals are bullies. They do not pick on those who can fight back. Does that not remind you or me—in fact apologies Mr Deputy Speaker I am not trying to remind you. Does that not remind us of a gang member? They are bullies and that is what they make their livelihoods from. That is what they spend their lives doing—bullying people.I just want to very briefly comment on Mr Goff’s comments on this bill because I cannot believe that someone with his vast experience of inept lawmaking can now criticise a Government member for bringing a bill to this House and say it is inept lawmaking. It is inevitable in the course of making any law that you are going to have inept lawmakers; people whose law does not achieve what it initially set out to do. I think that everyone who brings legislation or proposals to this House particularly members who bring them through the members’ bills process bring them here with the best intentions. I do not think it is our business to necessarily pull those people apart for the manner in which they do that.Intimidating public servants people who work for our Government and cannot dodge people is not a pleasant way to be. In the private sector we can do what we want with those people. We can deal with them as we like. We can ban them. We can trespass them. We do not have to serve them. In the public sector our public servants cannot do that. At Work and Income at post offices at hospitals and at schools they have got to look after those people.Kris Faafoi: You can trespass them.IAN McKELVIE: You may be able to trespass them but you need to look after those people because that is what we are here for. That is what Governments are for. So bill this will give public servants a little bit of an opportunity to manage that a bit better.I want to briefly address Mr Faafoi’s Pacific unemployment issue. In Marton which is a town in my electorate I have about 30 to 40 Samoan families a year coming into this country to work in the meat company just down the road. That happens every year so I fail to understand why in places like the Rangitīkei electorate large numbers of Pacific Islanders are coming into the country to work and at the other end we have them dropping out of the workforce. That is something we need to address.Before I finish I also want to comment on the latest edition of theListener  which I notice is red and has got “risk” written all over it. I suspect that is where we are at. Thank you.