McClay Todd: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McClay Todd: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 15 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4460. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 I move  
That the Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill be now read a first time. 
 I nominate the Law and Order Committee to consider this bill. 
Gangs cause harm and misery in this country. In January of 2009 16-year-old Jordan Herewini was mown down in what was described at the time as an armed gang hit in Murupara. He died from head injuries after being hit by a stolen ute. Kawerau gang member Quentin Duane Pukeroa a man twice the age of his victim was convicted of his murder. Earlier that day Pukeroa had hassled Jordan telling him to remove his yellow school polo shirt because the colour yellow represented a rival gang. On 3 October in 2009 17-year-old Kaingaroa resident Kaine Lewis died following a gang fight in Murupara. His scalp was split his skull was fractured following two punches causing his brain to swell. He died in Rotorua Hospital a short time later. Nineteen-year-old Norton Taoho was found guilty of his murder and Joshua Leslie-Whitu aged 18 and Hemi Winitana aged 19 were found guilty of manslaughter. During the trial the Crown solicitor told the jury a gang fight had broken out in the town between Mongrel Mob and Tribesmen associates following previous tit-for-tat incidents. 
In May of 2010 a 4-year-old Whakatane boy was abused by a Black Power affiliate for wearing a red shirt. The boy was screamed at was prodded and had his shirt ripped off him as he was playing in a city reserve—a truly traumatic experience for a 4-year-old boy and his family. A foreign exchange student was allegedly punched for wearing a red shirt in a blue town in Kopeopeo in December of 2011. The 17-year-old visitor to New Zealand was knocked unconscious in a seemingly unprovoked attack. The assailant had demanded he take off his sweater he was wearing and punched him in the head and left him unconscious. There had been other reports of people being targeted for wearing red which is a colour adopted by the Mongrel Mob by people wearing blue which is a colour worn by Black Power supporters. In July of 2012 gunshots were fired into a children’s bedroom in Masterton in a suspected gang-related shooting. Following the attack the police stopped all gang members on the street. The Wairarapa area commander said: “A gang patch is only worn for one reason and that’s to make people fearful.” 
In July of 2012 a 25-year-old Hawera woman Yahanna Karaitiana was jailed for 7 months for attacking a woman who was also wearing red. Karaitiana planned an attack on the woman after meeting her at a bar. With some friends she staked out the woman’s home and when she returned they beat her up in front of her children—in front of her children. In August 2012 the founder of the Killer Beez street gang was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for selling large amounts of P and passing it on to associates. He was found to have $20000 in his home. He was on a sickness benefit—receiving $175 a week. The list goes on and on and on. This is a list of the consequences of gang membership and gang harm. 
You see gangs serve no useful or legitimate purpose in New Zealand society. Their members prey on the weak and the vulnerable. They profit from the harm that they do to everyday law-abiding citizens of our country. They are responsible for the drug trade. They are responsible for poisoning our communities through the distribution of P—methamphetamine. They are the driving force behind organised crime and they are responsible for misery in every part of this country that they are present. They attract young people to them and ruin their lives. Jordan Herewini and Kaine Lewis are dead. The people guilty of their deaths are in prison—all under the age of 20 all young men whose futures have been ruined because of gang bravado and intimidation. 
Of the 54 councils that responded to a recent Local Government New Zealand survey a large majority—83 percent—reported the presence of gangs in their districts. The Police Association estimates there are around 3500 full-time adult gang members in New Zealand and it also suggests there are many thousands more who are associated with or attracted to gangs at a very young age. Indeed in 2006 the police identified that three-quarters of offenders associated with clandestine drug laboratories were linked to recognised gangs and I fear—for members opposite—the statistic has not changed. Indeed the Department of Corrections estimates that 30 percent of prisoners have gang affiliations. It has said that gang membership in prisons has doubled in the last 5 years. 
You see people feel intimidated by the presence of gang members. They feel intimidated by what they stand for and they feel intimidated every time they see them in a Work and Income office in council swimming pools in schools and in hospitals around this country. Law-abiding citizens deserve to go about their business free from gang-instigated intimidation. This bill is modelled on the Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Act sponsored through this House by Chester Borrows and championed by Michael Laws. The police estimate that between March 2009 and March 2010 gang membership in Whanganui decreased by 15 percent as a result of this law. They also said that overt gang presence was less notable by the general public and there was a reduction in the levels of intimidation in the community and a reduction in confrontations between gangs. 
This bill aims to reduce this intimidation. It introduces restrictions around gang insignia being displayed on the premises of departments of the Public Service and Crown entities as well as local government in New Zealand. Gangs are commonly identified by their insignia which associates the wearer with an organisation that has criminal intent. The insignia is often worn as a badge of pride demonstrating a high probability that the wearer has committed crimes as a means to earn the right to wear gang colours or insignia. They are not badges of pride; they are badges of misery and of crime. This bill names specific gangs to be covered by the law. It will be futureproofed to allow the Minister of Police to add gangs to the prohibition list through regulation-setting powers. It will cover all signs symbols and representations commonly displayed to denote members and those with an affiliation to or who support a gang. 
It includes all offices buildings and facilities both permanently and temporarily under the authority of the departments of the Public Service and Crown entities and all offices buildings and facilities under the authority of local authorities as defined in schedule 2 of the Local Government Act; it includes the grounds of public schools and early childhood education facilities; it includes the grounds of public hospitals and health facilities under the authority of district health boards; it includes all the grounds of public swimming pools and aquatic centres under the authority of local government authorities; and it excludes residential dwellings of the Housing New Zealand Corporation—all places where everyday New Zealanders go to seek support and all places they deserve to be free of intimidation. 
Contravention of the law will result in an arrest and a fine of up to $2000 and the destruction of gang insignia. 
I want to thank a number of councils around New Zealand that have expressed support for this bill. I particularly want to offer my thanks to Mayor Malcolm Campbell in Kawerau Mayor Tony Bonne of Whakatane and Mayor John Forbes of Opotiki for their strong support. These are three men who are willing to stand up and be counted and who are doing the right thing for the communities and I commend them. 
If you live in provincial New Zealand then you are likely to have known or know of some form of gang-related intimidation. This bill sends a clear message to gang members: “Your intimidation will no longer be tolerated.” It says: “This Parliament puts the rights of law-abiding citizens and your victims before those of criminals.” To gang members I say this: if you go to government premises with a patch your government will not serve you. Instead a policeman will. He will want to talk to you about all the nasty things you and your criminal mates have been involved in. 
I want to thank Peter Dunne of United Future John Banks of ACT and Winston Peters and the members of the New Zealand First Party for their support. This bill gives important tools to our police. This bill gives important powers back to our communities. It targets more than 3500 people who seek to harm law-abiding citizens in this country. I commend this bill to the House.