Turia Tariana: General Debate 
Turia Tariana: General Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10259] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Madam Assistant Speaker tena tatou katoa. In 1972 Stanley Cohen created a term to describe the media coverage of the mods and rockers in Britain of the 1960s. That concept—moral panic—is most frequently seen in the way in which crime statistics are manipulated and misconstrued in a peculiar blend of media hype and political opportunism. In Aotearoa in the last few months the gang culture has been targeted in the latest moral panic. Rather than creating space for a discussion about how we care for our alienated and our ostracised the nation has been embroiled in a fierce debate over how dangerously deviant and socially threatening they are and indeed the intolerable presence of gangs in our community has been condemned. 
This is not a new debate. Indeed nearly three decades ago Jane Kelsey and Warren Young described 1979 as the “year of the gangs” in their analysis  
The Gangs: Moral Panic as Social Control 
. It was a year that galvanised a string of subsequent strategies and reports: the 1979 report of the parliamentary committee on violent offending; the report of the 1981 inquiry into gangs known as the Comber report; and the 1987 commission chaired by Justice Sir Clinton Roper. And here we go again except there is a difference. Out of the Comber report grew the Group Employment Liaison Scheme. That was a scheme that the now Minister of Maori Affairs is still remembered for in terms of the influence and commitment that he had in pioneering a community development approach whereas now the consistent response to the challenge of the gangs is focused on the sharp end of social control the promulgation of a public relations campaign promoting authoritarian regimes and an approach of retribution and vengeance—ban the patch banish gangsters from the central business district and kick them out of town. 
Yesterday the Maori Party was honoured to host and welcome Professor Angela Davis who is renowned for her scholarship as presidential chairperson for the African-American and feminist studies department at the University of California Santa Cruz. One of her leading statements is that we have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society. Indeed if we are truly seeking a revolution of the heart a movement for change and the liberation of communities we must respond to the call that is coming from gangs themselves to find their own solutions. What the moral panic creates is a perception reinforced by the media the police the judiciary politicians and Government departments that gangs are completely out of control. It becomes the key distraction from—say—rocketing interest rates bureaucratic bumbling or insider trading. Instead the energies of the community become focused on singling out gangs for censure. All that such tactics do is to incite more resentment and rage from those who already feel positioned on the outskirts of society. Any suggestions that gangs themselves may come up with are rejected and are tarred with the brush that comes from the tactics of suppression—suppressing their own initiative creating new walls and refusing to talk about it. 
We have to be open to the ideas of others outside our own environment. The advice from Professor Davis to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society would be reflected in our being prepared to listen to the ideas of gangs about how they can change intergenerational habits. What are the ideas they are thinking about when they consider the future for their children and what is their purpose for change? The key lies in getting people engaged. Parekura Horomia knew that when he worked with the guys in the Group Employment Liaison Scheme. Rob Muldoon knew that when he looked for accommodation for gang members or encouraged gangs to contract through work trusts. With the advice of key leaders such as Dame Whina Cooper and Sir Graham Latimer he gave particular priority to working with Maori gang leaders and supported initiatives to give them alternatives in order to turn their lives around. 
Those are but a few of the politicians and the political strategies that have been adopted in the past to overcome the moral panic of those times and we can do it again. We can liberate minds and we can liberate communities; all it takes is the political will to make a difference in the lives of those people. Kia ora.