Paul TamathaTAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central): Kia ora Madam Chair. Thank you. My question is around the dispersal notices aspects of Part 3 of the Gangs Legislation Amendment Bill. There was a little bit of commentary made by the Minister before the dinner break about pro-social activities that gangs perform within communities. So my question is around why the Minister chose to ignore advice from justice officials around enforcing this ban on gangs gathering in a public place and how it is likely to undercut efforts to cultivate pro-social activities within gang communities for those groups that have moved towards adopting such behaviours".For context—because there was maybe a bit of scepticism about the pro-social role that gangs play in particular communities—I just wanted to bring to the Minister's attention for context some of those pro-social activities. During the COVID-19 lockdowns there was a real emphasis from the Government to try and reach hard-to-reach communities who may be a bit more distrustful towards the public health system and distrustful towards Government departments because of the prevalence of abuse that they might have experienced as part of those systems. We know there is a really strong connection between the abuse in State care and how that led to an overall distrust of institutions and how many people who are in gangs were victims of abuse in State care.We know that Mark Pitman leader of Black Power was instrumental in getting vaccinations into the Black Power community. He went on national TV and got vaccinated. We know that Harry Tam as well who is a lifetime affiliate of the Mongrel Mob was also involved in encouraging his community to get vaccinated. This was an approach that was taken by the former Government to actually engage in the communities that they're talking about and to actually work with gang leaders in order to encourage overall societal outcomes which is increasing the vaccination—CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): Can I ask the member is this going to relate to dispersal notices?TAMATHA PAUL: Yes. So this is talking about those pro-social activities that I'm concerned will get interrupted with these dispersal notice laws. I'm just giving some examples because before the dinner break it seemed the Minister wasn't aware of some of these pro-social activities. There was the gang involvement in increasing our vaccination rates but also when gangs stood guard outside the mosques after the Christchurch terror attacks. To quote from an article "Members of the Mongrel Mob appeared to act as security at the Christchurch vigil for the 50 terror attack victims today." And when asked about that protection that the Mongrel Mob provided they said there were three reasons for them providing that protection. It was first that they had brothers and sisters and family members who practised the Islamic faith. The second was he said "Number two we have a duty as a community to be there in time of need." And three "If we look at effective policing it's more effective when they are working with the community. They can't do it all on their own." Similarly in Hamilton the Waikato chapter of the Mongrel Mob turned out in protection for the prayer that happened following the March 15 attack. So here you can see examples of gang members who can see something going on in their community and they're getting involved. And that is providing a positive social outcome for that community which would not be possible had these laws been in place because these laws would be used against them.There was also another story of a pro-social gang activity when the protesters from Parliament decided that they were going to take over the marae in Wainuiomata. And actually lots of different people joined together to stop them from going on to that marae. It was a combination of local leaders Rotary members gang members league players teenagers as well as elderly knitters who stood side by side blocking the entrance to the marae. But we also know that there are many gangs that provide really important family violence prevention services and addiction-based health groups such as the Kahukura marae-based programme run by the Mongrel Mob that helped its members and its community to move away from methamphetamine use. And that was a subject of a lot of political scrutiny. However we can't deny that it was performing a positive role because it was people from a gang community helping their members to deal with issues of mental health and addiction.So it's clear that there are gangs that are moving towards doing positive things in their community. The Minister might not have seen it himself but I'd invite him to come to one of those communities and see for himself that there—CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): The member's time has expired"