Sio William: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12487. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere):I rise to take a short call on the Government’s Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Bill. There are some of us in this House who know a thing or two about gangs having worked before coming to this House in our community’s efforts to try to stop gang activity from happening in the community or in our efforts with the community to try to stop our young people from getting involved in gang-related activities whether they be legitimate or not but primarily they have been about drugs violence theft and in the main criminal activities. We on this side of the House as I am sure is the same for many others throughout this House have no patience at all for gangs. I oppose gangs and Labour opposes gangs and Labour opposes this particular bill. I will go through the reasons why.Despite what my colleague Kris Faafoi has said about the sincerity of Mark Mitchell in bringing this bill forward the reality is when you really get down to it this bill really addresses the gang’s dress code. It does not address criminal activities perpetrated by gangs. It does not address the drug dealings that gangs get up to or the use of young people to sell drugs. It does not address the thefts the crimes the violence the beatings that they give or even in some cases rape and murder. This bill does not address any of those serious issues whatsoever. So Labour is saying to this Government and to the New Zealand public that this bill is a waste of time.Regrettably what this bill does and what the community is expecting this Government to do are two different things. Yes this Government has talked tough about criminals. Yes it has talked about how it was going to get tough with gangs but the reality is that this addresses only what gangsters should wear in a Government department. It does not take away or address the substance or the character of the gangster who is wearing the patch and does not address the intimidation that the gangster will impose on members of our public.I do not know whether the member who has now taken up this bill is aware of the changing environment with the gangsters. Most gangsters—most gangsters—no longer wear patches. Yes you would see motorcycle clubs wearing patches but most gangsters do not. Most gangsters are either doing their dealings deep underground or particularly out in the open wearing T-shirts. This is why I have made the point that this law does not address the substantial issue that the community is concerned about—criminal activities by gangsters. It does not address that. So it is a waste of time.Look in 2010 the Otago University did a study of the cost of legislation and found that on average an Act costs around $3.5 million and a regulation costs around $530000. That is how much money that this Government is spending on a piece of legislation that effectively will not address the issues that this community demands of this Government that it address.In fact talking about the links between what this Government is doing and the gang-related activities or the reason why some of our young people continue to go into gangs there is a clear link by the evidence that when there is unemployment whenthere is poverty—and the kinds of unemployment that we have seen recently in the household labour force survey of 16.3 percent unemployment for Pacific and 12.8 percent forMāori—that is the kind of thing that this Government is doing that is perpetuating the kinds of activities that we see. So instead of the Government addressing the hard issues of putting people into jobs and paying them decent wages it just prefers to deal with a dress code—a dress code—which does not address any of the problems that I have outlined which our communities throughout New Zealand are concerned about. Criminal activities—