Mark Ron: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMark Ron: General Debate[Sitting date: 02 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9299. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RON MARK (Deputy Leader—NZ First): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. You always know when a Government is in trouble and when its polling statistics and its polling trends are giving it cause for worry. That is happening right now. This Government is looking at a flag referendum which was going to be the legacy of John Key going—well turning upside down.Tracey Martin: Down the gurgler.RON MARK: That phrase was in my mouth; I stopped it in time—going down the gurgler.We know for a fact that there is a bit of shock behind the National Party scenes because for the first time it is seeing reports that the Prime Minister is hated—hated. He has never had to deal with that. Not only is it hurting him personally but it is hurting those who sit behind him and further back on the backbenches because they are worried about their chances of re-election.The other thing that is concerning National is the rise and rise of Winston Peters and New Zealand First and the trend that National’s pollsters have already noted which the wider media has not yet seen. It is concerning National. It is not worried that the Labour Party is going nowhere but it is worried about New Zealand First. So what happened?New Zealand First in the last week before the adjournment started asking questions about gangs about the number of gang people in houses and raised questions about police resourcing and about gangs moving into areas where the police resources have dropped where police stations have closed. What did the Government answer? “It’s not happening it’s not a concern it is not a worry.” despite the fact that the police ran an escort for 180 Hell’s Angels members who drove through Rodney and stopped all the traffic—not an issue not a concern.Suddenly after the adjournment gangs are a concern. Suddenly after the adjournment the Government is going to get tough. Something tells me that the Hon Judith Collins is seeing her chance here and just like Jenny Shipley did she is stamping out her turf. I take my hat off to her.But the history—and this is where I have got to slap the media. How stupid that the media should buy into this and have it all over. Gangs are a problem? Well hello if we go back the number of reports on gangs goes back—what? Let us start at the 1979 select committee report on violent offending. Let us talk about the Roper report of 1981. Let us talk about the Justice and Law Reform Committee report back in what 1985 championed by Labour’s Mike Moore at that time. Let us talk about all the reports from Judge Mick Brown that everybody loves to quote.And where are we? Still with the same problem 40 years. What is the real history? Well in 1996 the good people of New Zealand saw fit to send New Zealand First to this House in good numbers and we did some things like bump up the police numbers—record numbers—got some laws changed with the National coalition and we did the same in 2008. But in 2006 we tried desperately to get anti-gang legislation passed to ban gangs—to ban them. Who stopped it? Actually Labour did under Annette King—would not allow us to introduce the legislation.That was based on very good legislation drafted using the South Australian example—South Australia’s Serious and Organised Crime (Control) Act which went through Parliament on 21 November 2007. We used the Terrorism Suppression Act as a model and we incorporated that and we used the US Congress’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. We put it all in. Who stopped us at every turn? National and Labour. Who is now trumpeting that it is going to be the salvation and the saviour of the New Zealand public from organised crime? Well National.I will say this: back in 2009 Simon Power did do something—he passed some legislation through this House. And we saw a member’s bill go through from another National Party member on gang insignia and the bandying of it around. But back in 2008 the National Party was chastising the Labour Government for having gangs in Housing New Zealand houses and today—2016—the same thing is happening again. This would be ludicrous if it were not so tragic. This would be a comedy if it were not so sad.The fact is that both these parties are the same. They will do nothing—nothing at all—