Turia Tariana: Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill — Second Reading 
Turia Tariana: Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:652;Page:1653] 
Hon TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Sometimes in this House I think we hear everything yet hear nothing of real substance and I think that is a worry when we consider the cost to the taxpayer of running this House. I say first of all that the Maori Party has very very serious concerns about the level of violence and criminal activity in all of our communities. We take that very seriously and we are really concerned about it. If we thought for one moment that targeting seven gangs three of which do not belong to Wanganui—interestingly those are the three white gangs—and that the Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill would make a real difference to the Wanganui community we would support it today. 
But there are 88 gangs in this country and if members of this House genuinely believed that targeting gang insignia was one of the most important things we should do as legislators then we would have thought that this legislation should be rolled out right around New Zealand. We would say that if members believe that this measure will work in Wanganui how come we do not think it is important that we take it to every town in this country? Wanganui is not a gang city. I resent anybody in this House who makes the implication that it is a gang city. 
I want to address the comments of my colleague who sits behind me that these people are not w’anau—they are many other things. I want to say today with considerable sadness in my heart that the gang members in Wanganui are related to all of us who are of Wanganui descent. They are our w’anau and we are deeply saddened that they have to find their comfort and their care outside of the w’anau environment. The big question for those of us who have our young people actively involved in these groups is why. What has happened to us in this country that we now have a phenomenon that does not come from our culture and that does not come from this country? Why? And why do we have so much poverty in our communities that these people are able to offer our kids something that the rest of us clearly do not provide them with? 
Although I accept that there may be elements within the gang culture that I do not support I know that there are many things that we as politicians—and others—profess to practise but do not. We do not open our doors. We do not care about the young and the dispossessed. We think that the only places where they can be cared for are the institutions of this country. If we were to listen to that member from ACT we would hear that we would be better off if we locked up most of these people without taking into account the reasons that may have led them down the pathway to where they are today. We have a lot of work to do as parliamentarians to look at these issues and to find out why these things are happening. That is why I want to mihi to Simon Power who is prepared to start to look at the reasons for criminal offending. There are reasons. There may not be excuses but there are reasons why people go down this track. I am more concerned—and so is the Maori Party—to find out what those things are and what we should be doing to intervene so that we can help people to become included as an important part of our communities. 
I know that many groups that are called gangs have participated in our communities supported our communities and done some really great work. Back in the 1980s when we had the contract work scheme Parekura Horomia somebody who worked a long long time with gangs in this country made a huge contribution as a public servant. He was trying to find ways to ameliorate the situation that was affecting not only the gangs but also the communities. The contract work scheme was working and it cut down on the criminal offending at that time but sad to say it was disbanded. I just say it is easy to sit here and throw stones at a group who are easy to throw stones at because they are really visible. 
If I thought for one moment that this legislation would make our streets safer and make a huge difference to the Wanganui community I would support it. But Metiria Turei is right—there are in fact many things that symbolise belonging to these particular groups and as we have seen some people have unfortunately died through the wearing of colours not the wearing of patches. I think that as a society we owe it to one another to begin to address the behaviour and not the clothes that people wear. 
We have to move from the tactics of suppression to strategies that create solutions. I mihi today to people like Kim Workman the director of the Rethinking Crime and Punishment project who has shown that different strategies can be employed—not only amongst gangs but certainly amongst criminal offending—and that they inevitably produce different results. He too has travelled internationally trying to find these solutions. I think we need to think carefully and in a considered manner about the best approach towards encouraging self-discipline while at the same time restoring that sense of community spirit. We must resist the temptation to just throw up in the air a whole batch of punitive measures such as hefty fines banning the clothes that people wear introducing bylaws and asking the police who are already overworked to arrest without a warrant those people whose activities they are suspicious about. 
So I guess that for the Maori Party all the research tells us that prohibitions generally do not work. What we need most is to urgently stimulate community debate and strategic action to address the upfront issues of public safety and the underlying issues such as family and community violence. The Maori Party is not a party that supports the tactics of suppression and exclusion. We support a restorative justice system and we advocate for helping agencies including the Government to work together with communities to develop and implement their own solutions. I am not saying that what confronts us is not a really difficult issue and I mihi to Chester for bringing this issue to the House. But again I say that if members genuinely believe that this is a significant issue for this country then this particular matter should be dealt with in every single community in the land. Kia ora.