Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa): Thank you Madam Speaker. Firstly I just want to say that it's a pleasure to stand and take a call on this the third reading of the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Amendment Bill. I agree with the Minister of Justice and I agree with the previous speakers that these bills are important and we do support them because we want to continue to apply pressure to gangs and organised criminal groups inside our country. I've been very clear that in relation to this bill although we've worked together—and I acknowledge the chair of the Justice Committee now Vanushi Walters who is in the House. We have tried to work together across the committee to strengthen this bill. Ultimately for me personally I was completely aligned with Chris Cahill and the Police Association in being very clear that if we really wanted to have an effective bill and if we really wanted to provide the police with a tool then we would have reduced the threshold from $30000 down to at least $10000. There have been some changes made around the ability to have a cumulative test applied but ultimately we could have made this bill much stronger and a lot more effective for the front-line officers who are stretched to breaking point at the moment in trying to deal with a massive increase in crime over the last four to five years and we could have done better. We could have done better as a select committee and we could have done better as a House to give them better tools to go out there and fight and deal with what they are currently which we all agree in this House is gang leaders that are out of control. The Minister sort of referred to gang leaders and I'd just like to make a comment on that. Gang leaders in this country have never been as strong as they currently are. There's been a 50 percent increase in gang members over the last five years. They've got more members they've got more avenues of being able to launder money they've got a greater ability to be able to hide assets they've managed to extend and grow their international networks they've become more violent and they're more likely to carry firearms. So unfortunately today in New Zealand gang leaders are much stronger and have a lot more influence than what they did five years ago. They're more sophisticated. You'll see them often out now on social media running PR exercises trying to respond and help with the state of emergency. Let me be very clear: they are quite simply PR exercises to try and pull the wool over people's eyes. These are nothing more than organised crime entities that are out there fully focused on peddling methamphetamine and drugs using standover tactics and intimidation having a presence in licensed premises theft conversion and money-laundering. That's what their core business is and that's what it will continue to be. I want to just touch very quickly on this. The Minister also raised youth crime. Youth and juvenile offending as we've seen especially in the last 12 months is on a sharp increase. A big part of that—and I've always said and there's been many people in the academics and everyone else and the hand-wringers say Oh these youth and juvenile offenders—it's just random. They're not organised. The gangs have got nothing to do with it." Make no mistake: the adult gangs are actively involved in working with these youth and juvenile offenders because having a youth or juvenile offender go out and do their dirty work insulates them from the adult criminal justice system and they'll continue to recruit and use these young people. It's very sad that in our country—in New Zealand which should be the safest country in the world—we have lost some of our innocence because now when we talk about juvenile and youth offenders we're not talking about them going out and meddling in a bit of shoplifting getting in with the wrong crowd a bit and sort of pushing the boundaries; we're talking about youth and juvenile offenders that are exposed to a constant diet of violence on social media and that are posting on social media and goading other youth offenders and youth gangs to go out and commit worse crimes. We had the awful situation in Beach Haven about two weeks ago where a young guy in his mid-20s who was trying to get home in the evening like most people do had had a minor fender-bender and the two offenders in that vehicle a 14-year-old and a 17yearold allegedly went back—because I'm conscious of the fact that this is still in front of the courts—to that vehicle and stabbed that young guy while he was still sitting in the vehicle's seat.Shanan Halbert: Point of order Madam Speaker. I appreciate that the member Mark Mitchell is raising the issue of Beach Haven. I do understand that it is before the courts which the member acknowledged. The details that he is putting out in this House this evening in my view are not accurate and so I'd just ask him to consider that and maybe just come back to the bill and avoid that particular example.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Speaking to the point of order Madam—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): I haven't made a ruling on that point of order but I would ask the member to just keep to the bill and matters that are still before the courts—I would prefer that you don't even cover allegations. Please just go back to the bill.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Just speaking to the point though Madam Speaker the issues that I've raised today are nothing that haven't already been in the public arena and have already been reported. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): They are however still within the court system right now with—Hon MARK MITCHELL: Yes and that's why I referred to alleged offenders. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Yes. Please just don't refer to allegations; just come back to the bill. Thank you.Hon MARK MITCHELL: So the point that I was making Madam Speaker—because I am speaking to the point that was raised by the Minister around high-risk youth offenders. The fact of the matter is we have come out with some very strong policies on this side of the House so instead of mocking them which is what the Government did I'd actually ask them to look at them seriously and recognise the fact that—certainly the one around a youth military academy is directed specifically at youth offenders aged from 15 to 17. I'm seeing looks of horror on the other side of the House that this fascinates me. I've been involved in what's called the Limited Service Volunteer Programme for 12 years. It targets young people from 17 to 24 that are off the rails they're making bad decisions in their lives and some of them have been in prison. They go into the Limited Service Volunteer Programme which is Defence Force - led with support from the Ministry of Social Development and police and 70 percent of them get their lives turned around and come into employment and are successful. They have the best role models and mentors that we offer as a country around them and they get proper investment in them. Quite simply what we've said with regard to those 15- to 17-year-olds who often have the adult gangs' hooks in them who are making very bad decisions and poor decisions in their lives and who are a risk not only to themselves but the communities that they live in is that we would take them and we'd put them into a programme and we'd extrapolate that over 12 months and we would invest heavily in their education. We'd get them making good decisions in their lives so that they'd have some aspiration and that they'd be set up and equipped to take advantage of all the opportunities that this country offers. That is how you would start to deal with some of those really tough crunchy issues around youth offending. I just wanted to raise the issue that the previous speaker Ginny Andersen raised around firearms prohibition bills. She spoke about the firearms prohibition bill and said that National had failed to bring a bill to the House. Well we've brought three members' bills to the House over the last six years. Every single one of them was voted down by the Labour Government and then what did the Labour Government do? They bring a—[Interruption] Well that's exactly what happened. So what did the Labour Government do? They brought in a firearms prohibition order that's got no additional warrant for search powers—it's basically useless. So I'll be very interested to see just how much the firearms prohibition order that was passed in this House is actually practically applied and used by our front-line police officers because it certainly doesn't give the ability to—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): In the last two minutes—Hon MARK MITCHELL: Thank you Madam Speaker. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): —can the member come back to this particular bill. Hon MARK MITCHELL: Well I'm referring to the issues that the Minister raised. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): And you have actually addressed that so I'm now asking you to come back to this particular bill.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Yes. Well there was another issue that the Minister raised and the last issue that she raised when she was talking to her bill was banning gang patches. She raised the Hon Chester Borrows and I want to acknowledge Chester—rest in peace. But she raised gang patches and let me tell the House something: I myself took a bill through this House about six years ago that banned that banned gang patches—Hon Barbara Edmonds: Point of order Madam Speaker. Thank you Madam Speaker. I just want to bring your attention to Speaker's ruling 129/2 in relation to a third reading of a bill that "the member should summarise and discuss the bill in front of the House not what another party might do in place of that [bill]." I'm just wondering if you'd give some consideration to that please. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Thank you for that assistance. However I have been trying to get the member to come back to this particular bill at a third reading. Please do in the last minute.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Just seeking your advice Madam Speaker I would like some genuine advice on this. The Minister herself raised in speaking to her own bill—this is her bill and the Minister raised and spoke about the banning of gang patches. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): She did—Hon MARK MITCHELL: Why do I not have the opportunity to respond to that? ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): —and there are other issues that she raised and you have also spoken about those. I am now asking you as the Speaker in this House because it is a third reading to please come back to this particular bill—in your very brief one minute. Hon MARK MITCHELL: OK I'm just wondering why the Minister wasn't brought back to the bill and why the Opposition members are being asked to be bought back to the bill. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Most of the speeches they were really relevant—they were speaking to the bill most of the time. I let you actually cover other things in the bill. I'm just asking you in your last minute to please come back to this particular bill.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Well all I'm going to say in my last minute is quite simply this. It is that for Labour members to stand up and say "We're being tough on crime" with a bill like this—to me it's sending a message to our front-line police officers that actually in this House we're not willing to give them the tools that they really need for this bill to be effective. We've put a bill through and we all agree that recovery of assets is really important—and our police are very good at doing that and they're very successful with their prosecutions in court. But we've left a threshold of $30000 in this bill and so that's going to make their job much harder. They're going to have to try and work out and calculate and get an estimate of actually what the value of the goods are that these gangs have and we shouldn't have done that. In this House we had the opportunity to give them a bill that genuinely allowed them to go out there and be quick and efficient in actually taking down these gang leaders that the Minister was talking about."