Cunliffe David: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 10 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:11883. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn):The member who has just resumed his seat Mike Sabin came out with the brilliant thought that just because this bill the Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill does no harmParliament should pass it. What an amazing precedent to set! Do you know how much it costs to run this House? It costs $7500 a minute. That member just took $35000 worth of taxpayers’ money to tell the Committee to do it because it does no harm—do it because it does no harm. How about solving the problem? How about being tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime? The Labour Opposition does not want tokenism; it wants solutions. It does not want half the country growing up in poverty and the other half sheltering behind razor wire. A divided society is a society that ultimately will be an unhappy and unhealthy society—[Interruption ]—a society where no one Mr Macindoe wins. No one wins.There have been some great studies that show that more equal societies do better. They do better economically. They do better socially. People live longer. They are healthier. They are happier. All the statistics go in the right direction. To get that boat turned in the right direction what do you need? You need housing. You need health care. You need good policing. You need a growing economy. You need jobs. You need all those things which the National Government cannot deliver. So what is its smokescreen? I know: we are going to ban gang patches because it “does no harm” even though it costs $7500 a minute to waste Parliament’s time—to waste Parliament’s time—and to waste the public’s time.We all know that the magnet of gangs is there because there are disaffected youth looking for a home looking for awhānau looking for role models and looking for male role models in particular. Gangs are a symptom of societal breakdown. And to be fair sometimes they can be the cause. We have no sympathy for gangs but what we are not going to pretend is that the clothing on someone’s back determines the outcome of our society. If the National Government was serious about fighting crime it would be serious about fighting unemployment. It would be reducing unemployment by growing jobs. It would put people back to productive work. It would work with our police to intervene before gangs were a problem.The member who just reduced his seat—when he sits down he does reduce the seat. That is just the thing. The member who just resumed his seat is a disappointment to the New Zealand Police Force today because the New Zealand bobby on the beat knows that the gang problem is a complicated problem and changing the colour of the shirt on your back or the patch on your jacket is not going to solve it. It is not going to solve the problem.What the Labour Opposition stands for is end-to-end solutions. We are going to follow the lessons of a “King Dick” Seddon or a “Mickey” Savage. We are going to have opportunities from the cradle to the grave and we are going to make sure we build a good society. We are not going to waste Parliament’s time by worrying about the gang patch on somebody’s back. Tough on crime tough on the causes of crime—that is the Labour philosophy. Let us get a real strategy not something that in the words of the member opposite will simply “do no harm”. Thank you.