Mitchell Mark: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Mark: General Debate[Sitting date: 02 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9310. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): I have noticed in the House over the last two or three weeks that the deputy leader of New Zealand First has got very excitable about Rodney and Helensville. I do not blame him because they are two great electorates obviously. He was talking about gangs and I am going to come back to gangs very shortly but the other comment he made and he said it a couple of times was about the rise and rise of Winston Peters—the rise and rise of Winston Peters! So I wondered where this—[Interruption] Well exactly. I wondered where this came from and so of course I used that fantastic tool Wikipedia to have a look. I realised that he was putting together his own story for his leader. If you have a look on Wikipedia—Fletcher Tabuteau: Don’t read Wikipedia to us again.MARK MITCHELL: Yeah here it comes. Yes it is coming. The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer: this is the title of a satirical film about the influence of public relations spin and opinion polls in politics. That was the first one. That is the first reference. The second one—[Interruption]—oh it is going to get better trust me. The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket—this one is a light-hearted entry in American Playhouse. It is about a man who really believes he can fly without the aid of machines. I could see where this was going right? I could see where this was going. The deputy leader of New Zealand First has taken these two great stories and he has combined them. He has brought them together with a new title: “The Rise and Rise of Winston Peters”. What is this about? It is the title for a satirical film about a man who uses the influence of public relations and spin to convince people he can fly without the aid of a machine. I think that is a very accurate title and a very accurate description for the Rt Hon Winston Peters.But I did want to come back to a very serious point and that is—we are talking about gangs. Mr Mark made a comment after the Minister of Police had got up and spoken and outlined that there was going to be a very robust programme put in place—and I want to acknowledge Minister Anne Tolley as well who has had a lot to do with this as a past Minister of Police and now a Minister for Social Development. The point is that we want to keep putting pressure on gangs because gangs are blood-sucking leeches on our communities and our societies without a doubt. You might laugh but actually there is nothing—that is a very accurate description of what gangs mean to the communities that they flourish and operate in.But Mr Mark said that we had not been doing anything about gangs so I wanted to give you an email that I received from one of the gangs’ two-bit flunkey lawyers. I received this Friday 27 February so this is over a year ago. What he says—I will not use his name but what he says to me is this: “Could you please disclose all information in your power or possession about Wellsford police using a cross-governmental approach. This will include correspondence emails reports briefings diary and meeting notes and any other information and please see my comments that they are taken out of the Hansard attached. Could you also please disclose all correspondence emails or similar between you and your office and police about gangs generally and about the Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill.”This email came to me maybe to try to intimidate. I mean that is a common tactic used by gangs is it not—intimidation? So I would not put it past their flunkey lawyers to try the same tactic. This letter came to me because there had been a concerted effort between central government agencies and local government to put pressure on the Headhunters in Wellsford to make sure that they were compliant with laws to make sure we got rid of unsafe structures and to make sure the correct signage was up because again they put the signage up to try to intimidate and scare people—one of the classic tactics that they use.I would just like to point out that I received this email a year ago. The nice thing about it was this: it did take me a few days to respond because my email filter was working well and it went straight to junk mail right? Yes. So it did take a little while to actually dig it out find it and respond to him. The response was that you are not going to get any of that information. My electorate agents actually do a very important role. Their role is to support the constituents in my electorate and deal with their serious matters; to make sure they get the support that they need not to act as legal executives to a flea-bitten gang lawyer. I just want to finish by highlighting that I want to congratulate the Minister of Police. I want to acknowledge—