Mitchell Mark: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Mark: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 15 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:9966. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): It is a pleasure to stand and take a call on this Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill. I would like to acknowledge first of all my colleague Todd McClay for bringing this bill to the House. He is a member of the National caucus obviously and the reason that a bill like this is generated is that the National caucus in support of our Government is focused on making New Zealand a safer place for all Kiwis. He also understands his electorate very well. We have seen examples in the House of earlier speakers who appear to be out of touch with their electorates; he is not. He understands that there is a real issue with gangs not just in Rotorua not just in his electorate but nationally.I would just like to talk about one of my first contacts with gangs. It was as a police dog handler working in Rotorua. Those who have lived in Rotorua either as the police or even just as residents and members of the community will be very aware of the oldMongrel Mob headquarters on Sala Street. When I first started there we had two young ladies come to the police station obviously in a terribly distressed state. In fact one of them probably to this day has not recovered from what she had to endure at the hands of the Mongrel Mob at their pad on Sala Street. What had happened to them is that the Mongrel Mob had two young prospects and one of them was her cousin. As part of their initiation as part of their pathway towards earning a gang patch they had been instructed to entice these two young girls—15 and 16—down to the gang pad. Once they got them down there they then proceeded to put them on what the gang members called the block and they were gang-raped by patched gang members and the prospects were forced or encouraged to rape them also.So I just want to be very clear when we are in this House and we are talking about gang patches that we actually understand clearly what a gang patch means and what it signifies. What it means is that when you see a gang member walking around patched up with a gang patch on it is telling you it is telling us and it is telling the rest of the people in the community that they have committed crimes against us and that they have probably committed violent crimes against us. They have made impacts on and affected people victims who will probably never fully recover. So when a gang member walks into a Government building or walks into a premise wearing a gang patch what he is really doing is telling everyone that he has committed crimes against us and he is prepared to continue to do that.I just want to talk about my own electorate as well because in my electorate of Rodney we have the communities of Wainui Waitoki Silverdale Hibiscus CoastŌrewa Pūhoi and Warkworth. They are generally good solid law-abiding communities. But we are not immune to gang problems and we have gangs called the Headhunters and the Hell’s Angels which are both extremely active inside our communities in Rodney.I want to acknowledge our police leadership actually. I would like to acknowledge our police area commander Scott Webb; the guy in charge of our Criminal Investigation Branch Detective Sergeant Brett Batty; and the sergeants who run the stations Bede Haughey Mark Ovington and especially Sergeant Kellie Bissett. Kellie is the sergeant in Wellsford and she has a team of nine up there. She is working very very hard to try to put as much pressure as possible on the Headhunters who have arrived in Wellsford who have set up a pad and who are committing crimes actually not just in Wellsford but throughout the whole electorate. Her team is actually using a cross-governmental approach. They have got the council involved. The council is supporting them in trying to apply as much pressure as possible to those gangs to try to get them and push them out of the area. I take my hat off to them and I want to acknowledge the great work and the service that they are providing to the people of Rodney.But the thing that we are doing down here to help them is we have got Todd McClay’s bill in this House. It is passing through this House now and it will give them another tool. It will allow them to take action against a patched gang member when they walk into or when they are present in a Government building. In fact I was up there with them 2 weeks ago. Their biggest complaint I think—the issue that was swirling around at the time—was the fact that we had just celebrated our Anzacs and at their dawn ceremony up there they had had patched gang members Headhunter gang members turn up to the Dawn Parade. They wished actually that this bill could cover something like that. Unfortunately it does not but that is what they would have liked to see. I am not saying that anyone cannot turn up to a Dawn Parade but I tell you what I do not think that it shows a lot of respect to our veterans past and present to have patches arrive when all a patch says as I have said is that those patched members haveoffended and caused harm in the community. That is not what our Anzacs went offshore and fought for. That is not what they stood for.There are just a couple of other things before I finish that I would like to address. One is this: Mr Goff got up and said that currently there are laws available to deal with gang members who decide to wear their patches and intimidate people. He quoted the Trespass Act. Well what happens with the Trespass Act is that someone has to trespass a gang member and I am telling you now that people are intimidated. Who is going to stand up and say: “I am going to take a step and I am going to trespass someone.”? We are removing that from them. We are removing the intimidation and fear from that person with this piece of legislation.The other thing is intimidatory behaviour. Yes that is right. That is a very good piece of legislation that the police have available to them but what it requires is a physical act of intimidation. So what Mr McClay has done with his bill is he has allowed the police and given the police another tool—and let us be clear. In his speech he said this is not the silver bullet—this is not the silver bullet. This is not the panacea. But it is a step in the right direction in giving the police another tool to be able to put pressure on gangs. What it allows the police to do is that they do not have to worry about a member of the public having to make a trespass complaint. It means that they do not have to worry about whether the actions being taken fit within the current legislation for intimidatory behaviour. It allows the police to come in and say: “Remove your patches and don’t wear them around members of the public.”I would like to finish just by saying that we did hear many submissions. There is one submission that I do want to refer back to. It was made by Jacob Te Kurapa from Murupara Area School. Murupara of course is in Mr McClay’s electorate. Murupara has got social issues that it is constantly facing and tackling. It has a big gang presence down there with the Black Power the Tribesmen the Mongrel Mob. In his submission he said: “Children and students do not need to see gang insignia plastered about our school they need to be protected from it. The introduction of gang insignia into our premises would create tensions and unnecessary negative behaviour and we want to discourage that type of behaviour from our school.” He wants the ability to protect his students to give his students one place where they are free from the intimidation of gangs.I know for a fact that in my own home electorate Kate Shevland the principal of Orewa College; James Thomas the principal of Whangaparaoa College; David Macleod the principal of Mahurangi College; and Francine Bennett the principal from KingsWay School would all welcome the ability to prevent having gang patches in their schools and around their students.There is one other point that I would like to make. It was brought to my notice by the Hon Chester Borrows and it is a very good point. Mr Goff said that the gangs are not worried or concerned. If the gangs are not worried or concerned about this legislation then why did they spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to defeat it against the Wanganui District Council? If they are not worried about it then why have they got their two-bit lawyers turning up to our Law and Order Committee to make submissions on their behalf? Thank you.