O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): That previous speaker David Seymour from Leader of the Opposition to Leader of Proposition"—I'd say "Leader of Irony". I know irony is not allowed in this House but to stand here remonstrating about how he was going to drop tax and in the next breath demanding that we increase the salaries of all public servants—just not quite sure how they pair off but he will know that!But what I'd like to do today is what we all do: whatever occurs people talk about the economy and wanting everyone to do better wanting more for those in New Zealand to do better. But there's a group I'd like to discuss that I don't particularly want—I don't think anyone here wants—to do any better in fact we want to really economically destroy and that's organised crime and gangs in this country. That's a group that only when we destroy them economically will actually be able to successfully stop the encroachment that they're making within New Zealand. I remember standing at a tangi of a very good friend of mine and standing there with a kaumātua and we stood there and looked at some of the people there and he made a very profound statement. He very forcefully said "There is nothing good about gangs" and that really struck me just his forcefulness what he'd seen it do to his particular community. And that's what we need as New Zealanders to understand—there is nothing good about gangs. There is no apology for them. So what that means is we must do what is necessary to depower them to take away their sphere of intimidation and we do that by taking away their money.Simeon Brown: Your Minister Marama Davidson thinks there is. She's got plenty of—GREG O'CONNOR: There are other things we can do—and I hear a squeaky little voice over there saying "Put them in jail." Actually the problem is if you go to Southern California the prisons are run—in most places in the world prisons are run by gangs. The way you actually do it is to get the assets off them and very good this week to see the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Amendment Bill is being proceeded. Police have been actually quite successful in New Zealand at taking away the finance from gangs. In fact the only way you do stop a gang is by taking their money away. In my time there have been two gangs which have basically been destroyed. Both those gangs—one in the South Waikato; another one in Nelson—they were actually destroyed by other gangs because they took away all their assets for reasons that they'd been infiltrated by police. So you can actually destroy a gang if you take away their assets there's proof of it.So what this legislation will enable us to do—and it's the first time and it's something I've been advocating strongly for—is actually meaningful asset seizure. So if you front up in a big flash piece of bling—and it's about bling—and you have been unemployed and you can't prove where it came from authorities—police—can take it. That is the type of activity and that is the type of response that will actually make a move on these gangs because it's all about money. There's many apologists for it but it's actually all about money. I'm aware of someone I know very well who has actually been approached and offered some significant money to join a gang. That's how they're getting people. So unless we talk about and focus on the money everything else we do is basically rhetoric. Scaring the heck out of the public of New Zealand is not going to do it because it actually works in their favour because the more fear that is generated among the New Zealand public around gang activity the more successful they are. I do warn particularly those who think that they're doing the best for the public of New Zealand by scaring the heck out of the public you're actually working for the gangs in doing that.There was a member of the 501s I'm aware of recently complaining to his ex-colleagues in Australia about his inability to get anyone in New Zealand to take a bribe. That is why we have got a real opportunity because where money becomes so prevalent and it's happened in so many places around the world the actual amount of cash available the ability then to corrupt that is when you really have lost it with organised crime. We haven't in New Zealand yet and if we can now with effective legislation of the sort that is actually being proposed here—ensure that we actually get the money away from gangs—first thing we'll do with that is we will stop the recruiting; there'll be no incentive for young men and women to join gangs because there'll be no money in it for them: those young men and women who become the jailbait for those at the top. There's been some very good seizures; New Zealand Police have done some great work seizing assets. You can go right down to the middle right to the local dealer who is driving on a flash Harley that he's got no way he could ever have been able to legally afford.So this is some really positive work that we need to support. I hope we get it right across the House to actually get the finance get the money and get the power away from these gangs."