Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Speaker. I just spent the last five minutes here listening to Helen White the member opposite and she told us we were going to hear the visionary things that she stood for in Auckland Central. I guess the visionary thing that she stood for in Auckland Central was the $785 million cycle bridge across the harbour in Auckland which has meant that transport projects across New Zealand have been cancelled and up my way we're wanting to know why the Eastern Busway and the Reeves Road Flyover have been delayed by two years because the Lycra brigade got what they want for 3000 people on a bridge. But there is one thing this Government has delivered and that is they've delivered more gang members than police officers here in New Zealand. New Zealanders are feeling sick and tired of the increasing gang presence in our communities and they're feeling less safe. The Government has delivered more gang members than KiwiBuild homes in New Zealand. They've delivered 2500 gang members and less than 1000 KiwiBuild homes. They should hang their heads in shame.Just last week the Napier City Council released a survey of the residents of Napier and their feelings of safety in the community. The survey undertaken in February this year found that 44 percent of locals did not feel safe in their city—44 percent of people in Napier did not feel safe. That compares to 17 percent last year and 19 percent in 2019. It is a fact that under this Government New Zealanders are feeling less safe. The question needs to be asked: who represents the seat of Napier? Oh it is the Hon Stuart Nash the former Minister of Police. I remember when he stood up in this place and he said Labour will smash the gangs." Well I would like to tell you that in the eastern district where the city of Napier is gang membership has increased by 56 percent under this Government.Hon Todd McClay: Oh that's smashing it. SIMEON BROWN: Well that's smashing it—it's smashing those targets in a different way isn't it? It's not quite the smashing that the people of Napier were quite expecting when Stuart Nash said he was going to smash the gangs.Which then gets me to the question: what is this Government actually doing to tackle the challenges of gangs in New Zealand? They promised New Zealanders 1800 new police on the beat in three years. Well on 1 July tomorrow it is four years since the increase in police started under the last National Government and what have we got? We've got an increase of 1300 of the 1800 police officers. Where's the last 500 of those officers? Seven hundred of them were to be tasked with tackling organised crime and gangs and they haven't even yet delivered 300 of those 700. They haven't even got half way to the target of delivering 700 new officers focused on targeting organised crimes and gangs.The most worrying and concerning fact in this survey is that 55 percent of respondents said that gangs were the greatest safety concern in the Napier City Council area. Gangs are what are causing the problems gangs are causing New Zealanders to be unsafe and this Government has done very little to address these challenges.Almost two months ago we had the Minister of Police and Minister of Justice announce to New Zealand that they were going to introduce tough new measures to tackle gangs in New Zealand—two months ago—and we still haven't had any of that legislation come to the House. They said "We will be introducing legislation to bring into force firearm prohibition orders." Well we asked the Minister last week at Estimates "Where is that legislation? When's it going to be introduced to the House?" "Oh well it's very complex. We're working on it. It's going to take time. Hopefully we'll have something this year." were the answers. Well that's not good enough. This Government was recommended by Police in the briefing to the incoming Minister the Hon Stuart Nash in 2017 that that legislation was needed and we're still here waiting for this Government to wake up to the problem that there are major challenges around law and order in New Zealand that need to be addressed.This Government is soft on crime. This Government is soft on gangs. New Zealanders are feeling less safe. New Zealanders want tougher action and they want it now. Thank you Madam Speaker—Mr Speaker."