Waititi Rawiri; Pugh Maureen; Goldsmith PaulRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori ): Thank you very much Madam Chair. It's a privilege to take the first call on this particular silly bill. I've just heard the Minister in the chair Paul Goldsmith in his answer talk about how he's giving the police extra tools to be able to deal with people going about their everyday business. It is an issue for us when on reasonable grounds" which is very subjective for police officers many who we have found in the past and many reports have come out of the police that there is racial profiling in the police department. There have been reports—and I'm sure you've done your due diligence and read those reports because there's racial profiling within the police. I find this bill really concerning when you've got words like "reasonable grounds". It's absolutely subjective to suspect that a person is a gang member.We've got a lot of rangatahi that walk around with hoods with hoodies—my boy is one. Now if a police officer suspects that he is a gang member—Hon Member: Which will happen.RAWIRI WAITITI: Which will happen because we've already had the racial profiling and there have been already reports come out about the police already having racial profiling within the police. It has been happening for many many years. Like my colleague talked about Hana 50 percent of the male prison population in Aotearoa are Māori; 65 percent of the female prison population are Māori. That already tells us that we've been racially profiled. I have issues with the reasonable grounds. It's absolutely subjective.I just want to talk about my experience with the gangs. There's no gang in whānau but there are whānau in gangs and not all of them are criminals. Here is the problem: if you deem it reasonable grounds to suspect that somebody is a gang member there's going to be huge problems. I worked with the gangs when—I heard one of the other colleagues talk about vaccinating. I worked with many gangs; I have a whole lot of proof to show that they did their part for Aotearoa. The Black Power the Mongrel Mob—the whole lot. I worked with Harry Tam; I worked with Eugene Ryder. I worked with them all to ensure that they did their part when it came to the vaccinations. They also stood on the iwi border controls. You ask any police officer right now: they had no issues—they had no issues.How far-reaching does this bill go—how far-reaching does this bill go? Does it reach into marae? Does it reach into marae where many of our gang members in my community are doing the hāngi? They're feeding the multitudes that come on to our marae to our tangihanga. They're the ones cutting the wood for the hāngi they're the ones killing the meat they're the ones going to do all the diving gather the kai. How far does this reach—how far does this reach?We've already got police officers who do a good job. Community policing is the answer and I already know because we have community policing down there in Whangaparāoa Cape Runaway where a police officer actually plays rugby with the Mongrel Mob members. We all live together; we're all related. But these are the answers—community solutions are the answers not these types of bills.Now "A person … is detained under subsection (1) may after being cautioned be arrested without warrant if the person—(a) fails or refuses to remain at the place where the person is detained; or (b) fails or refuses to give their biological details". If that was my boy and he refused to give this detail because he is not a gang member what does that mean? This bill has the ability to reach into his home because of reasonable grounds that a constable has to suspect a person or being a gang member.These are the questions that I have for you Minister tonight and my community deserve the answers in this committee. Do the police have the right to walk on to marae the last bastion Māori have for rangatiratanga? Your Prime Minister agreed that article 2 was to be undisturbed of our property rights—of our taonga of our moana of our kāinga. Now does this bill go against what the Prime Minister admitted to in question time last week? These are the questions that I have—Madam Speaker I haven't finished—CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): The member's time has expired.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister of Justice): Thank you to the member for his questions. I'd like to reassure him that if somebody thought that they were issued with a dispersal notice and they weren't a gang member then the process is set out very clearly in clause 18 which is to say they can apply immediately to the Commissioner of Police and the Commissioner of Police has to reply back within 48 hours and if the individual is not a gang member then they wouldn't meet the grounds for the dispersal notice.In relation to helping out with vaccination campaigns again that is not captured by this legislation because it would be very hard to describe that as unreasonably disrupting the activities of members of the public. Going out and getting some meat for a hāngi wouldn't strike me as an activity that's disrupting the activities of members of the public. What we're talking about is a large gang activity stopping people moving around Ōpōtiki or a place like that—is what is in mind through this legislation.In terms of racial profiling I think the only point I'd make there is you know very easy to say and very damaging for the many thousands of young men and women in the police force who do their very best every day to keep the community safe. It's a very easy allegation to throw at them and it's one which—we back the police to do their job and of course recognise that over the past and in our history and there are claims that are made that need to be dealt with carefully. We're going through that process through the State abuse inquiry and that's something that all New Zealanders would want to see dealt with more effectively. The reality is that no society or no institution will ever be completely free of bad actors but a good Government has things in place to ensure that few of those people can get anywhere near places where they can cause damage and if they do they're called out very quickly and dealt with very quickly and effectively. That was I think one of the primary things that we learnt from the dreadful circumstances of the past where things happened and nothing changed for many many years and people didn't deal with those situations.So I hear what the member is saying but can give him this assurance that the process is laid out quite clearly and it only relates to unreasonably disrupting the activities of members of the public and there is a very clear process for that to be challenged in a quick and easy fashion."