Jones Shane: Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill — In Committee 
Jones Shane: Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15333] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Minister for Building and Construction) 
: 
 Kia ora ano tatou. 
Nathan Guy 
: No! 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: Ah the man from Horowhenua has returned. “Horowhenua” means to gallop very quickly over the land. He will need to do that if he is to have any prospect of dislodging te matenga whero my colleague Darren Hughes who is 30 years old and a very very adroit man in a range of fields. 
I need to respond to Dr Sharples and say that Dr Sharples made a point or three that deserved support. He pointed out that we must not cast aside the youth and I agree with Dr Sharples about that point. He also pointed out that those who are tagging are showing the habits of a kuri or in my own dialect in the far north a kirehe—a dog that wanders around having a mimi on every lamppost tree or vacant spot. In that sense he is on the button but he must accept that underlying this tagging activity is the force of the gang. 
Gangs use tagging not only to recruit but also to intimidate and not only to intimidate but also to frighten families so that they get to a point where they have less control over the rangatahi—their young children—than the gangs which use tagging as either a badge of honour or a form of staking out territory. Gangs need territories and just as we use 1080 to bomb possums I look forward to the day when we can use 1080 in South Auckland and in my own Ngapuhi rohe to ban and get rid of gangs. 
It is not right to say as Dr Sharples has intimated that gangs are not involved in tagging. Mr Hawkins Judith Collins and a variety of others—and indeed my huanga here from Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa the proud representative of our Pasifika people in South Auckland—know through their efforts that behind all the misguided activities of the rangatahi lies a more potent force. The force that stands to gain as a consequence of this delinquency and criminality is not necessarily the young people but the gangs because they need fresh members. They know that as long as we in the community or the elected representatives show any softness or any indulgence or do not put down the aukati the line in the sand then they will treat us as a soft touch. 
That is why despite the fact that Dr Sharples says we must allow the young people to redeem themselves and I thoroughly support that we should have absolutely no fear in saying to the gangs that they have no place—and in fact they do not even belong—in civil society. What gangs represent is threatening and frightening mothers and fathers to the point that they cannot even counsel or offer an opportunity to their own young people without those opportunities being corrupted and distorted through gangs. That is why we must never normalise them and we must make a stand against tagging and support the initiatives that Mr Hawkins along with other Manukau MPs has struggled to bring to the attention of this House. 
To be staunch against gangs is not to turn or whakaparahako our backs on young people but it is to show young people that if they associate with gang culture then they are going to only one place—in the hinaki likely to end up at Ngawha. Kia ora tatou katoa.