Little Andrew: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Little Andrew: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 29 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4882. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW LITTLE (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to make my contribution on the Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill. There is one point that the last speaker Jami-Lee Ross made that I agree with and that is about what gangs typically engage in which is criminal activity. They try to conceal their criminal activity through their gang activities. It is for that reason that this bill should be voted down because it is totally hopeless it will contribute nothing to the problem of dealing with criminal activity in gangs and it is an attempt at gesture-politics that will do nothing. It is cynical it is poorly motivated it is a dumb bill and a dumb piece of legislation. The people on whose behalf I feel embarrassed actually are members like my good friend from Rodney whose name escapes me for the moment—I know his first name but— 
Hon Member 
: He’s a good friend but you don’t know his name. 
ANDREW LITTLE 
: You do not need to know a friend’s name to get on well with him. 
Louise Upston 
: Mark Mitchell. 
ANDREW LITTLE 
: Mark Mitchell a former serving officer and another member Chester Borrows another former member of the police force will know what it means to deal with gangs will know what they do will know what it takes to police them and will know the insidious business they are involved in. 
The one I feel most embarrassed on behalf of is Mike Sabin because Mike Sabin in his life prior to coming to this House made a very honourable contribution to his community to New Zealand when he left his role as a high-quality high-performing member of the police force to embark on a personal campaign to try to rid this country of the scourge of methamphetamine and methamphetamine dealing and to educate people families and communities about it. He knew like most former serving police officers do that the gangs are running that insidious nasty evil drug as a business. They do it as a business. So any step that can be taken to address that to do it down to get rid of it should be adopted embraced and wholeheartedly supported. 
This bill is not that step. This bill is hopeless because it does not address that sort of issue at all. It is window dressing of the worst order. Addressing the event that a gang member turns up in a public library to return his or her books with their patch on their back will not address the criminal activity of gangs. Michael Laws found this out in Whanganui and with Chester Borrow’s support—oddly enough—passed the by-law until it was overturned by the court of course to rid the main street of Whanganui of gang patches. Of course after all the hubbub all the debate and all the noise they created about it the people they ended up persuading to stay away from the main street of Whanganui were not the gangs; they were the good citizens and the good burghers of Whanganui who saw all the messages heard all the debates and thought: “Gee it is a pretty intimidating place to be on Victoria Street Whanganui. I am not going down there. I am not going down to the public parks of Whanganui.” 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: The shops are closed. 
ANDREW LITTLE 
: The shops are closed. It did in good businesses that were dependent on good foot traffic and they were destroyed by that silly gesture. What has happened to gang activity in Whanganui? Nothing. Nothing has changed. They are still there. They are still there doing their nasty evil trade their nasty evil business. They still wear their gang patches in most of Whanganui. It did nothing—it did nothing. So that is the problem with this bill. It gives members who feel inadequate the ability to stand up in this House puff their chest out sound tough and look like they are doing something but actually they are doing nothing. That is the disappointing thing about this bill. 
What is very sad is that we have come all this way and after all these years this Government has been able to do nothing to address the very serious problems of gang-driven gang-inspired crime. This bill is a joke. It will achieve nothing it does even less and it is for that reason that it should be voted down.