Tremain Chris: Address in Reply 
Tremain Chris: Address in Reply 
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CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 Mr Deputy Speaker I acknowledge you and congratulate you on election to your office. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Napier and Wairoa for electing me as their member of Parliament. It is a privilege that I do not take lightly and a privilege that has to continue to be earned. 
The Speech from the Throne highlighted two crises ravaging the belly of New Zealand communities: the financial crisis and the gang crisis. The financial crisis has been much debated in this House. John Key has a clear vision for this nation: blunt the edge of the recession and place New Zealand in the very best position to go forward and to recover and grow. There has been total focus in this regard. A coalition agreement was reached within 11 days Cabinet was selected in 2 weeks and Parliament was reconvened in just 30 days. Before Christmas the House sat under urgency from 9 a.m. until midnight in order to give effect to a tranche of measures to deliver on John Key’s vision to blunt the edge of the recession. Just 93 days following the election we are back in this House in urgency again delivering a further spread of initiatives to deliver on the Prime Minister’s vision for blunting the recession and preparing the economy for growth. 
The small-business package has been practical and proactive. The infrastructure announcements are sensible. They are helping to protect jobs and laying the foundations for growth. I acknowledge the impact of the Matahorua Gorge project in Hawke’s Bay. This project will shave significant time off the Napier to Wairoa route improve safety and drive economic growth to the region. This is an example of short-term impact and long-term benefit. On any measure this package of initiatives is impressive but also measured. We are cognisant of the fact that any dollar borrowed today needs to be paid back tomorrow. 
The second crisis I wish to speak about is the ravaging of our communities by gangs. Members should make no mistake: it is a crisis. When I was 18 a friend of mine Vaughan Gooch stood up for a young woman at a Napier party. He was punched senseless by gang members to the point where he was unrecognisable in hospital. Twenty-four years on the situation is simply worse. Now people are not only punched senseless but murdered. The social experiment with gangs has failed. 
Whether it is 
the killing in Murupara which we read about in this morning’s  
Dominion Post 
 or the murder in Hawke’s Bay of 34-year-old Mark McCutcheon—who went to the aid of a woman and who leaves behind a wife and three young daughters—the cup of evidence is indeed overflowing. Every day stories such as those go below the radar. Before the Otane murder a gang member went into a Waipukurau cafe grabbed food walked out came back 3 hours later grabbed more food and sat down. The proprietor a woman confronted the gang member who spat at her and head-butted her for good measure as he walked out. 
These people are no longer part of our community yet we continue to treat them as though they are. We feed them we house them we pander to them in our prisons and what do we get in return? We are repaid with horrible crimes. We condone their existence. We condone the gangs to such an extent that many Kiwis and international tourists see them as the face of Maori culture. Yet they are a stain on Maori culture. Gangs hide behind tikanga of which they know nothing. Most cannot recite their whakapapa except back to nga kuri—the dogs—and they wear disfigured moko as some alien connection with a culture of which they have no idea. 
Maori need to break free from the shackles of gang thuggery to disown gangs and to stop making excuses for them. Rape murder burglary and intimidation are not part of tikanga. While Maori leaders continue to make excuses for gangs Maoridom in my opinion will be the loser. 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: What about the Pakeha gangs in Timaru? 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: And those too. In that respect I congratulate Ngati Kahungunu. At their Clive Waitangi Day celebrations they banned gangs and they banned patches. This is the leadership that needs to be taken. The Maori Party needs to lead the way in that respect; all Maori MPs need to lead the way. Maori culture will not advance to where it should be while these thugs continue to drag on our coat-tails. 
In that regard I totally support the legislation of Simon Power. Would we allow 3000 people who wore Hitler’s swastika to parade in our streets to commit murder rape and burglary to feed our kids P and then to turn up in the courts barking like dogs? No we would not. Yet we condone a private army of people wearing Mongrel Mob and Black Power insignia. We condone a private army where rape is an act that qualifies one for the patch. I no longer condone these patches and I join my Hawke’s Bay colleague Craig Foss in doing all that I can to wipe out this menace from the face of New Zealand society. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker.