Mark Ron: Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill — First Reading 
Mark Ron: Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:646;Page:15758] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise to signal to the House that New Zealand First will of course support Chester Borrows’ bill the Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill. [ 
Interruption 
] The Maori Party leader our respected Tariana Turia says that of course we will and she is correct—of course we would support such a bill. Before I commence my speech I say “well done” to Chester. He has done well in the sense that he has brought to the House legislation that the majority of Wanganui wants passed. I think the first thing we need to reflect on before we discuss the pros and cons of the bill is a simple principle and a simple fact: we live in a democracy. 
I digress briefly I have just attended the order of service for the launch of the 2008 Poppy Day appeal and Poppies on Parliament hosted by the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs the Hon Rick Barker and supported by the Returned and Services Association. In fact most of them are still standing on the forecourt right now. The men and women who made those sacrifices not just in World War I and World War II but going back as far as the Boer War did so in order to give us a nation that is free a democracy and to give us the rights— 
Rodney Hide 
: So why do you support Labour? 
RON MARK 
: In comes the dancing star with his chip from the sidelines. He is a smaller man than he used to be—that is what they say around the country nowadays. Rodney should just be quiet for a while and listen. 
The people we are commemorating out on the forecourt right now are the people who gave us the democracy we have right now. The key fundamental principle of a democracy is that the majority of the nation has its will. That is the simple fact. Mr Hide seems to like democracy when it goes in his favour but he seems to champion some other version of democracy when it does not go in his favour. 
I have only one thing to say to Mr Hide who does not seem to support democracy and the will of the people and it is that 65 percent of the people of Wanganui want this bill passed. If Mr Hide stands against the majority and against freedom and democracy then I suggest that he should go to Zimbabwe where he can have one-party rule and everyone can bow down and kiss the feet of Rodney Hide the ruler from on high who has all ground at his purveyance and at his feet because he is the only man with the right opinion. Mr Hide is entitled to have his say and to express the view of his party which has about 0.2 percent of the support of the population but the fact is that Wanganui has sent a very loud and clear message to all of us that it wants this bill passed. That is very first thing we need to take on board. 
We need to think about the content of the bill its aims its purpose its direction and what it tries to achieve. I have heard some of the arguments against the bill and I listened but one thing that is inescapable for New Zealand First is that we cannot see what useful purpose gangs serve in this country at all. Just as Cindy Kiro would say that tagging is an art form expression that should be respected there are other people in this House who would say that gangs have a place in society and they contribute constructively to society in general. In New Zealand First we say that is wrong—they do not. 
Gangs’ principal aims and contributions to the New Zealand scene are crime and the seeking of profit through illegal and criminal activities. They do that through a variety of means. One of the means they use is intimidation. Intimidation can be physical and confrontational with a direct threat to people’s personal well-being or it can be a message that is sent. Patches and the wearing of insignia are the first level of intimidation that these people exert on the communities that they inhabit. 
I saw a situation at Wellington Airport very recently when a group of men swaggered through the airport and slowly one after the other took off their jackets to reveal Mongrel Mob patches. The immediate impact right through the Wellington terminal was there for everybody to see. People moved aside and as these men fanned out through Wellington Airport to assert their authority with their patches on their backs the evidence of their intimidation was clear for the 1000-odd people in that terminal to see. They were there with their patches purely to intimidate to threaten and to send a message to wider society that they rule that they have the control and that everybody else should make way for them. Well I am sorry but New Zealand First does not agree. The first step is to remove from out streets the patches and the regalia and the intimidation that comes with that and the second step is to remove the gangs themselves from our countryside.