Sepuloni Carmel: Gangs and Organised Crime Bill — In Committee 
Sepuloni Carmel: Gangs and Organised Crime Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:658;Page:7508] 
CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour) 
: 
 Labour will be supporting the Gangs and Organised Crime Bill. We on this side of the Chamber agree with the Government that some of the most insidious crime in our society is perpetrated by gangs and organised crime. Some of us in this Committee have had family members who have been traumatised by gangs or lured into involvement in gangs. The more we can do to take away the power of gangs and other organised crime units the better as far as we on this side of the Chamber are concerned. 
It is important to mention that the previous Labour Government had legislation similar to this bill before the Law and Order Committee when the National Government came into power. Had the National Government genuinely wanted to expedite this measure at a faster pace perhaps even within its first 100 days of action all the Minister of Justice needed to do was to support and possibly amend the bill that Labour had before the committee. Despite the fact that this Government decided to ignore that bill and start from scratch for the simple sake of political point-scoring Labour supports this bill and the intention behind it. 
Part 1 amends the Crimes Act 1961. It makes it easier for people to be charged with involvement in a gang. Its provisions cover the nature of participation in an organised crime gang and involvement in a crime where three or more people share one objective even if the person in question does not share this objective but merely knows that the three people do. It also broadens the scope of offences that are punishable and changes some penalties from 10 or more years’ imprisonment to 7 or more years’ imprisonment. The legislation also changes provisions on warrants. If a person is believed to be in a gang authorisation to intercept a private communication will be easier for the police to obtain. 
The Minister of Justice was right when he said that some concern about the bill was expressed to the Law and Order Committee. Some of the 11 submissions that were put forward were opposed to the bill because submitters were concerned that the proposals would impinge on the right to freedom of association freedom of expression or freedom from discrimination. Other submitters were concerned that it would infringe the rule against double jeopardy. Some submitters conveyed support for this bill while suggesting further proposals. Labour did not believe that those concerns were sufficient to propel us to oppose the bill; therefore we support it. 
Although we support this bill it is important to point out a slight contradiction or irony. It would be fair to say that the Ministry of Justice cannot work in isolation from some of the other Government departments. In fact it needs to work coherently alongside other departments like the New Zealand Police. Unfortunately the reality is that as we move to put this bill into place the police budget has been cut. That is something that Mr Cosgrove talked about earlier and it is concerning. 
It is concerning that as the Law and Order Committee is aware as we are putting through this legislation there has been a 10 percent cut in police vehicles a cut in police firearms training and a $21 million cut in the police budget. All of these things will limit the ability of the police to do their job well. We as New Zealanders know that if we intend to do something better as this bill purports to do and if we are asked to increase the workload our chances of being able to do so are minimal when funding is cut and when the expectation is that more can be achieved on a much smaller budget with much tighter resourcing levels. The Government cannot say it is backing the police to deal with issues like organised crime while it pulls away the resources that are necessary for police to do their job. 
Labour supports this bill because we are committed to removing criminal gangs from our society. We are prepared to work in a bipartisan way to tackle the scourge of gang crime and drug trafficking in our communities. We on this side of the Chamber recognise crime as a serious and growing problem. We also recognise the complexities that are involved in crime particularly and this is something that has not been raised often in respect of low socio-economic circumstances and high levels of unemployment and the impact that those two factors have on levels of crime. Those are two factors that the Government must address if it is serious about cutting crime levels. It is estimated that up to 30 percent of prisoners currently identify as gang members or affiliates and that figure paints a thousand words.