Lee Melissa: Gangs and Organised Crime Bill — Second Reading 
Lee Melissa: Gangs and Organised Crime Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:657;Page:6299] 
MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to support the second reading of the Gangs and Organised Crime Bill. It is lovely to hear members opposite supporting this bill and speaking so passionately about it. There are some 3000 patched gang members in New Zealand who are spread across nearly 200 organisations or chapters. There are the gangs we know of and of course there are gangs who operate without patches without gang fortifications and without other gang paraphernalia but who still operate gang businesses that have become a scourge on our society. New Zealand has a gang problem. Gangs are a very complex problem and they require a multi-faceted and multi-pronged resolution. I have no idea why young people feel the urge or the motivation to join gangs. 
I support the honourable member opposite Shane Jones who has just resumed his seat. He talked about looking at different role models other than gang members. Mr Locke said earlier that young people join gangs to get social support. As a young child I left my country of birth to live in foreign lands. The sojourn ultimately moved me to New Zealand and as a newcomer to this country I did feel like an outsider. It took a long time for me to feel as if I belonged here. But I did not join a criminal gang. I understand the desire to belong to be part of a group. 
Todd McClay 
: You joined this one. 
MELISSA LEE 
: Yes I joined the gang in Parliament. But to choose to belong to a gang where the common denominator is violence and illegal activities is simply stupid. It is unfathomable. Many people come to New Zealand as refugees and migrants who have no English no money no family and no real support network yet these people do not join gangs or involve themselves in gang activity. The National Government is committed to clamping down on gangs and has given this bill legislative priority because New Zealanders deserve to feel safe in their homes and on the streets. 
This is familiar ground for Labour members as well—those on the opposite side of the House—as the previous Labour Government talked about it. Yes the Labour Government said it would get tough on crime and tough on causes of crime. Well did it? Let us look at the results of the last 9 years—the very long 9 years—of a Labour Government. Violent crime rose. Violent youth crime went up as well. Drug-related crime rose and so did gang-related crime. Labour talked a lot about gangs but talk did not stop crime rising. It did not stop the P trade from flourishing. Members knew in 2007 that just under 75 percent of the clandestine drug labs were linked to known criminal gangs. When National announced in August 2007 that it was clamping down on gangs surprise surprise Labour claimed that it had been working on similar proposals. In 2009 after 9 years in Government Labour decided to announce it was setting up a committee to talk about gangs. The word “committee” has over the years become synonymous with Labour as has a commission of inquiry—all talk spending lots of money and nothing being done at the end of it. 
This National-led Government has wasted no time in bringing before this Parliament practical and realistic initiatives to combat gangs. The Gangs and Organised Crime Bill will give more power to the police with an interception warrant. It will lessen the evidential burden on the prosecution to prove participation in an organised criminal group. It will increase the penalty for participation in an organised criminal group from a maximum of 5 years to 10 years. I think that is fantastic. Extending police surveillance powers in respect of gang communications and providing greater powers to remove gang fortifications are measures I support wholeheartedly. 
Many of us would have heard heart-wrenching stories or would even know people who have been affected by the drug P—I have. I have seen the bruises and the devastated face of a mother who was at her wits end trying to help an adult daughter addicted to P helping her to try to get off P and being beaten in the process. That is addiction to a drug that is manufactured and distributed by gangs in this country who are making money out of it and destroying our families. 
We do not need an inquiry. We need some action because New Zealanders deserve the right to feel safe in their homes and in their communities. They deserve to know that the Government is doing something about gangs and organised crime. This Government’s Gangs and Organised Crime Bill goes a long way to do just that and to not just talk about it like the previous Labour Government did. Thank you very much.