Paul TamathaTAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central): Every person deserves to feel safe in their homes and in their communities. Similarly every person deserves to live free from harm and discrimination. Nobody disagrees with this premise. The Green Party agrees to that premise as well which is why we created Te Aorerekura which was the first all-of-Government cross-party approach to eliminating and preventing family and sexual violence in our communities. That was a really good plan that got to the root cause of making our communities safer and making sure that people could live free from harm and discrimination.But what this bill does today is it hides behind a guise of making our communities safer. Over the last few days we've heard from the Government that they have a mandate to crack down on law and order and to make our communities safer. But what we know about the bills that are going through the House this week is that they're not going to do that because they're targeting such a minority group in society and placing the blame squarely on that minority group in society. But this is simply virtue signalling. It does nothing to make our communities safer at all. In fact it will have the opposite effect and it will make things more unsafe especially because it's adding to the increased workload of police who are already going to have increased tensions in their communities. It just adds to the list of potential to increase hostility in our communities between police and between gangs and other people that they might suspect to be prospective gang members.What is a prospective gang member? If you look at the reasons which this Government has not been doing at all—they love to talk about gangs all day long but they never even seek to understand why it is that people join gangs in the first place. We know why that is because it's well documented. The Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister said that the reason that people join gangs is because of poverty—that a majority of people are in gangs because they experience abuse at the hands of the State. Many people who are incarcerated have high rates of disabilities; they come from impoverished backgrounds. These are the reasons that people join gangs but you're not interested in understanding that. You're not interested in channelling investment towards reducing those drivers of crime. You just want to pin it on a small group of people—Hon Member: Not you".TAMATHA PAUL: Sorry not "you"; "they". They want to pin it on people to say they're the problem—that that's the reason why we have harm in our community. We know why harm happens in our communities and I guarantee you that this bill before us tonight does nothing to address those drivers.I don't understand what this Government is up to when they are going to make assault-style firearms more accessible in our communities and then on the other hand they are trying to do things like this bill represents. Which one is it? Is it less guns or more guns? All I can see is the gun lobby all over all of these bills that are going through the House at the moment.This bill will do nothing but contribute to the over-incarceration of indigenous people in this country. We know that we have some of the most shameful statistics when it comes to indigenous people.Hon Nicole McKee: The most shameful people—standing up in Parliament backing gangs.TAMATHA PAUL: Māori women—Māori women—a group which that member is part of are the most highly incarcerated indigenous people in the world—in the world. Congratulations because that member's bill is going to contribute to more incarceration of indigenous peoples. What a legacy to have—what a legacy to have.When Moana Jackson wrote his amazing report in the 1980s He Whaipaanga Hou Māori women represented only 6 percent of the prison population. How is it that in only four decades we represent more than 60 percent of the prison population? It's because of bills that have gone through this House that seek to target small groups of people without understanding those drivers of crime that we have that overrepresentation.The Green Party believes that no one should have access to a firearm unless it is for hunting or pest control. We believe that safer communities can be achieved when we address the root causes of crime and gang membership which this House has no interest in doing. Those things include a healthy affordable home livable incomes meaningful mahi opportunities good education and high quality access to healthcare. If you read the report that the Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister wrote about gang membership and why people are joining gangs in the first place it is all of those contributing factors that matter. It's not things that this bill is presenting."