Borrows Chester: Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill — In Committee 
Borrows Chester: Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2124] 
CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 It is important to make a number of points in respect of this particular clause. 
Various speakers have spoken about an underlying intent of the Wanganui District Council to somehow ban gang insignia from the areas of the town that are well off and to leave the poorer areas of the town languishing with gang members allowed to be there uninhibited. When the process of bringing a local bill before the House is initiated one of the things that have to be done is for a copy of the bill as intended to be put up for public display in a number of areas. At the back of the copy of the Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill were a number of maps photographs and street descriptions of where the gang patch bans could be or are anticipated to be. That information was open to the public so that they could have some communication on it and give some feedback on their thoughts. If the members who have given speeches on the bill and spoken in such a disingenuous way about the Wanganui District Council and its intent had taken the time and effort to get that document they would have seen that the spread of the ban across Wanganui is broad and includes large tracts of parks and reserves around the poorer areas of the town. It does not include residential streets but does include council property within those areas. 
I think it is also important to note that one of the saddest things about debate in this Chamber is that at times people speak out of both sides of their mouth. On the one hand we have people standing up and commending the Wanganui District Council for caring enough to promote this bill: for putting up its hand and taking responsibility. They are saying it is a worthy move and all that patronising stuff whereby people pat us on the head for having done so. Then those people are speaking out of the other side of their mouth—for instance the Green member who has spoken suggested that there was a conspiracy between the Mayor of Wanganui and myself to hide from the public exactly where these bans would be put in place. Well people cannot have it both ways. The speech was made before tea and the suggestion was made that the mayor had done that and that I was somehow part of the conspiracy. 
Another point is that time and time again we hear speeches about the disingenuousness of the police in stopping and enforcing laws against young Maori men as a matter of course. I find that incredibly difficult to stomach given the role that the police take within our society. I am not so green as to be cabbage looking and I understand that amongst every big box there are a few rotten apples. Where we have 8500 employees there are those who will abuse any legislation just as there are now. 
A suggestion was also made that in the notified areas cars could be stopped and the contents tipped out and searched for gang insignia. Of course cars can be stopped under the transport legislation. They can be randomly stopped for anything—and frequently are. The fact that this legislation enables a police officer to stop a vehicle from which gang insignia is displayed to the public is the nature of the definition of section 2 of the Summary Offences Act. That is where this definition of “public place” comes from and it provides that people who are in a vehicle in a public place so defined are in a public place. When they are in that vehicle within this legislation the gang insignia would have to be visible in the banned area from outside the vehicle. 
It is important to make those points. Yes we do accept that from time to time rules are bent and rules are broken. That is the nature of human life; it is the nature of living in a society. But let us get back to the point. These people in Wanganui took legislation—the Local Government Act—and used it in a way that it was intended for: to be able to create legislation that deals with a problem that is not only theirs but is a problem broadly across the whole of our country. Those of us who represent constituents understand that that is true. The people of Wanganui have put up their hand accepted they have a problem and have taken some flak for that in bringing this bill before the House.