Paul Tamatha; Mitchell MarkTAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central): Thank you very much. My questions follow on from some of the stuff that the chair of the Justice Committee James Meager brought up—around the gang patches stuff. Now obviously we're looking at the former year rather than looking forward to the future. I really want to ask the Minister how he's found the existing gang patch ban to have worked. My understanding is that you can't wear them in public places but the number of fines that are being handed out for the legislation that is currently in place does paint a picture of it being a very ineffective policy. So could you have a chat with us about how you reconcile that in your mind and I suppose about the police officers that are being charged with enforcing the gang patch bans.I mean surely that's a really dangerous and difficult position to put police officers in and just looking at the amount that they're being paid particularly those starting officers I mean is that a fair and reasonable expectation to have on them? And is it a fair expectation to set with the public? If the existing bans are not being enforced and we're still seeing gang violence and we're still seeing that harm being created in the community then how do we reconcile that fact—that we've got a police force that is unable to enforce the existing bans and future bans—and that we are putting more police officers in danger through setting that expectation for them and for the public? Thank you.Hon MARK MITCHELL (Minister of Police): Thank you Madam Chair. I thank the member Tamatha Paul for the question. I think that it's timely obviously with the legislation sitting in front of the Justice Committee which she's a member of and the fact that there is a lot of public debate around it at the moment in terms of the gang patch ban—not so much the dispersal notices and the non-consorting orders but certainly the gang patch ban.Look can I just say that I've just recently come back from a meeting in Canberra with the state Ministers and the federal the Attorney-General and their commissioners and one of the bilateral meetings I had was with the Hon Paul Papalia and his commissioner Col Blanch. He's the police Minister for Western Australia. Col Blanch is the commissioner for Western Australia. The legislation that we've taken which is the gang patch legislation the dispersal notice and the non-consorting orders are basically the legislation that that government passed about 18 months ago. So the meeting for me was to get feedback and find out how effective that legislation has been in terms of suppressing the gangs and getting on top of the gang problem that they had in Western Australia. Overwhelmingly the response that I got—the feedback that I got from them—is that it's been hugely effective. In fact the day that we met the front page of the main West Australian paper was running a story saying that the leader of the Rebels motorcycle gang had just left the gang because he was finding it too tough—it was too tough to be in the gang and he had left. That was the front-page story running in Western Australia the day that I met the Minister and the commissioner.I just want to give you a little bit of background and a little bit of context around why we felt it was so important to introduce this legislation. In the last six years there has been a massive increase in patched gang members in this country. We have seen a proliferation of weapons. We've seen gang members now that will carry weapons and are willing to use them. We see gang members that think they're above the law and that if they come out and take over public spaces they can abuse and intimidate members of the public. We've even seen them go so far as to roll into our provincial towns take over the towns shut schools and stop our kids from getting to school. We have seen a very permissive environment where these gangs feel like they can operate with impunity and that has made not just the public less safe it's made our front-line police officers less safe as well. These gang members do think they're above the law. They've got no respect for our front-line police officers and part of the legislation and the new tools that we're giving the police is actually going to give the police the ability to reassert themselves over and above the gangs and give the community that they serve a feeling that they control the streets and not the gangs.So when we talk about it being dangerous for our police officers to go out there and deal with gangs I accept that; that has never changed. They're an organised criminal group and they have a propensity for violence but we have the best professional police service in the world and they have a very strong and proud history of knowing how to deal with gangs. It's just that at the moment the gangs think they're running the show and we're going to send a very clear message to them that they're not. And by the way when you actually start to get on top of the gang problem not only is it safer for the public it's safer for those police officers as well. That is why we're so committed and why we feel it's so important to have this legislation in front of the committee and to be part of our overall approach to public safety in our country.