Logie Jan: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12488. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green):I rise as the Green Party spokesperson on human rights to speak to the third reading of this Prohibition of Gang Insignia on Government Premises Bill. The Green Party opposes this bill. It has been designed to feed the existing widespread fear of gangs without any chance of reducing the crime associated with these gangs. This bill says that it seeks to restrict the display of gang insignia “on the premises of Departments of the Public Service Statutory entities and Local authorities in New Zealand.” and it defines “gangs” as “gangs listed within regulation”. The bill will allow police to without warrant arrest a person who the officer has good cause to suspect has displayed a gang insignia on Government premises and seize and remove gang insignia that has been or is being displayed. It also enables the police to stop vehicles to exercise powers of arrest or seizure.We have heard so much vitriol from the Government side of the House about criminality and the evil of gangs yet none of us here is suggesting that gangs are actually benign associations that contribute to our society. I join my Labour colleague in sharing my experiences of working in the community and working in women’s refuges with women who have escaped violence associated with gangs and have had to move cities to be able to find freedom outside of that environment. I have worked in youth health and I have seen young people being recruited by the gangs. I have seen their vulnerability and the danger that the gangs present to them but it is for these reasons and based on these experiences that I oppose this bill and the Green Party opposes this bill and I would like to share some of the reasons why.I am thinking particularly of those young people whom I have worked with. In the recruiting of young people gang patches are not part of the process; colours are. This bill cannot do anything about that and if it sought to actually make the wearing of colours illegal we would see how truly ridiculous this is.Mike Sabin: Colours aren’t a patch.JAN LOGIE: Colours are not a patch—exactly. But they serve the same purpose in the recruitment of young people and the association of that gang. We would see if we outlawed the wearing of red T-shirts how absolutely ludicrous this is.Secondly for me as a youth worker it was really important to be able to see that because it showed me those young people who were at risk. It enabled me to have those conversations with them and also for us to be able to go to the gangs at the time when we saw patterns develop and actually call them on the safety of those young people. If we drive this underground if we hide this then we actually limit our ability to be able to work with those young people to help them actually find safe pathways to their own futures. Thirdly the gangs thrive on their outsider status. The more we take away and demonise the regalia associated with the gangs then the more we build their status as outsiders and the more alluring they become to those who have been ostracised or feel they have been ostracised by society. Fourthly we do not need this legislation. We have the Summary Offences Act. We have numerous examples of police stations and schools being able to say: “No gang patches on this site.” There is no need for it. Thereis an ability to decide as a community about whether the visibility of patches is appropriate in a specific place.The Green Party is not pro-gang but we are pro - solutions that work—not solutions that demonise people but solutions that work with people and communities. This is not one of them.