Maipi-Clarke Hana-Rawhiti; Mitchell MarkHANA-RAWHITI MAIPI-CLARKE (Te Pāti Māori —Hauraki-Waikato): Tēnā rā koe otirā tēnā rā tātou e te Whare. E tū ana hau ki te waha i ngā kōrero mō Te Pāti Māori ā ēngari mōku ake mō tōku rohe o Hauraki-Waikato me tōku tino āwangawanga ki tēnei Kāwana kaikiri me ō rātou take.[Greetings to you and to us all here in the House. I stand to voice the opinions held by Te Pāti Māori but also for myself for my people of Hauraki-Waikato we are very worried about this racist Government and their ways.]My question is to the Minister of Police. I have a series of questions however I have attended not one but three tangihanga or funerals within my electorate of Hauraki-Waikato and I have been absolutely appalled with distress at the amount of police that have barricaded the local marae and even more so the violation of discrimination to the whānau pani the family of the deceased ones during a time of mourning.I am seeking answers from the Minister today on firstly what is the process for 60 police officers to attend a tangi? Secondly how is it acceptable that 60 police officers can show up to a tangi have armed checkpoints with M4s then on burial day have an Eagle helicopter circling around the urupā or cemetery as karakia commences as they are lowering the caskets of their loved ones?We have witnessed enormous amounts of police cars showing up to the streets of marae to have checkpoints at tangihanga. This is completely unacceptable. These proceedings are highly discriminatory. I would like to seek clarity on the fact: do police now have the authority to interfere in tikanga protocols cultural considerations and tangihanga? A majority of local police officers have a good relationship with their local communities hapū and iwi. Our local police have been very apologetic for what has been happening and said it was a direction not from them but from Wellington. By police turning up to tangihanga in this way which is completely disrespectful and culturally inappropriate this will cause further pressure and distrust between mana whenua and police. What reassurance can the Minister give to this urgent disturbing take [subject]?Hon MARK MITCHELL (Minister of Police): Thank you Mr Chair. I thank the member for the question. Look I can't talk in great detail to the examples that the member has used but I guess if I could sort of give you an overview in terms of the approach the police are taking I have to assume that that probably involved gang members.Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke: Point of order Mr Chair. I'm just clarifying just so that constituents know at home one of those tangihanga was a gang member - affiliated tangi and two of them weren't.CHAIRPERSON (Teanau Tuiono): OK. Point taken.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Yeah. So again I apologise. If you give me the details then I can definitely look into that for you but I just don't have enough detail now to give you a detailed response.The only thing that I would say is that personally I'm extremely proud of our New Zealand police service. They are deeply connected with their community and that's the entire community. But I think that probably what you may be seeing and witnessing is that a lot of these gang convoys have felt that they have the right to take over public roads. In fact in your own area there was a terrible example a couple of years ago where a gang convoy came around a father who was trying to get home and he was scared and pulled off to the side of the road. They pulled him out of his vehicle and they assaulted him so badly that he ended up in Waikato Hospital with a serious brain injury. I'm using that as an example because what they're doing is they're intimidating members of the public. They're taking over public spaces. Actually I feel very strongly as the incoming Government and as the Minister that we should protect the rights of those law-abiding citizens and reinforce the law and remind the gangs that they don't get to just come out and do whatever they want. They don't get to come out and take over public spaces. They don't get to intimidate members of the public. I'm only assuming that maybe what you've seen or what you've experienced is the police trying to effectively manage those convoys in a public space. I'd be very surprised if the police have come on to any private property but they definitely would be dealing with that assertively because that has been an expectation of this Government but it would be in a public space.