Faafoi Kris: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 12 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11116. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana):I just wanted to take this short opportunity to get a right of reply to Jami-Lee Ross and also to include in that some of the comments that were made by Mike Sabin. Jami-Lee Ross accused this side of the Chamber of supporting gangs. Then Mr Sabin—who I think had some very good points in his last speech—rattled off a whole lot of offences that gangs commit. I find it offensive that that side of the Chamber can claim that this side supports gangs and those kinds of crimes. I find that extremely offensive. I know this debate has been full of a bit of bluster but to have Jami-Lee Ross accuse this side of the Chamber of supporting gangs and their actions and then to have that list of offences read out by Mr Sabin—it is an unfortunate list of crimes and we know it is true—is offensive. I find it offensive that Jami-Lee Ross can throw that accusation over at this side.The Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill is a bill as Mr Little said that is cosmetic. If we wanted—and we have made this point many many times—to take some action against the gangs there are laws now that can be enforced with proper policing and can have the same effect. This bill is cosmetic. This is a Government that said it wanted to crack down on crime and crack down on gangs. In 2007 the Prime Minister said: “My Government will search out all legal and practicable means available for making it much much tougher to be a member of a criminal gang in this country.” The way this Government does that is to change the dress code of the gangs. That is effectively what it is doing. It is saying: “You can’t wear your patch in Government departments.” We have already said on this side of the Chamber that a lot of Government departments already have the authority to do that. I have already mentioned the instance of the local police station in my area Porirua. If you walk in there they can ask you to remove your gang patch.I also find it offensive that Mr Jami-Lee Ross can come here and talk about my community where gangs are a problem and say that by not supporting this bill we are not cracking down on gangs. I want to draw on a speech that Mr Sabin made on the previous bill before the House and his comment about his ability to serve his local community and do what is best for it. I would not be doing the best for my community if I supported what we think is a cosmetic piece of legislation before us now. If we had changes that seriously attacked the drivers of people joining gangs then this side of the Chamber would quite happily support them. But we are not going to support through this House cosmetic legislation that we do not think is effective.I am not going to take up much more time of the Committee but I find it offensive that Jami-Lee Ross throws that accusation over to this side of the Chamber and says that we are supportive of gangs. I want to reiterate the words of Phil Goff in our minority report on this bill: “Labour has no truck with gangs”. Patched gangs in our country are unfortunately the source of much crime and much pain to our community. If we want to be real about stamping down on them let us get in this House some legislation that is actually going to be effective.