3. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) Link to this
to the Minister of Justice
Does she agree with the reported statement that gangs are becoming a part of the solution to youth violence; if so, why?
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Justice) Link to this
I have seen a statement in the New Zealand Herald today attributed to Pita Sharples of the Māori Party. Although I would like to believe that gang members have reformed and now wish to become part of the solution to youth violence, I have seen no evidence to show that they are anything other than part of the problem. However, there may be individual ex - gang members who undertake worthwhile work with young people.
Rt Hon Winston Peters Link to this
Does she share the view of most of the population of this country, which is that gangsters are helping to create the problem with violent criminal offending and are not providing the solution, and that rather than having constant hand-wringing about gangs and an acceptance of their existence, the time has come to outlaw gangs that have a serious criminal record?
I agree with the member that gangsters are helping to create the problem rather than the solution. However, I do not believe the answer is just a straight outlawing of gangs. The members of any outlawed gang would just change its name or morph it into another form, which is why I launched only this month the organised crime strategy, which takes a whole-of-Government approach to the combating of organised crime. That is where we will find gang members—they are involved in organised crime—and we need the resources of many agencies to fight that at many levels.
Ron MarkHas the Minister heard about the marae-based hui between such gangs as the Mongrel Mob, Highway 61, Black Power, and Hell’s Angels that Dr Sharples promotes; if so, whom does she believe those hui benefit the most: the young people whom the gangs have got hooked on the drugs they manufacture and distribute; or the wider community, who have had a gutsful of the gangs’ drug-dealing and violence; and could it be that just as we have seen in the overseas situations with gangs internationally, gangs are using those hui to put aside their traditional rivalries in order to work together to maximise their profits?
As I have already said, I have not seen any evidence that gang members, involved in organised crime as they are, are anything other than a problem. I would hate to think that they are able to use forums like meetings on marae as a method of recruitment or to have respectability to cover up their real activities. However, I would leave it to the wise judgment of the people who are on those marae in terms of deciding whether the people they invite there have a good cause or otherwise.
Has she seen any evidence, as a result of all these hui or of the assertions by Dr Sharples, that gangs need to be part of the solution, or that gangs are shutting down their dope-growing operations, shutting down their tinny houses, and handing over to the police gang members who supply dope and P to kids, or that gangs are de-patching and disbanding, or does she, like me, think that Dr Sharples and his cohorts are simply running a great public relations campaign?
No, I do not believe that Dr Pita Sharples would run a public relations campaign. I think that Dr Sharples genuinely believes what he says, but I say to him that I have not seen evidence of gang members being reformed to the extent that they want to be part of the solution. In fact, I have seen the opposite of that, in terms of gang members moving to other parts of New Zealand, setting up near prisons, recruiting young people, and using them to become the next wave of gang members. I would be happy if what Dr Sharples says was true, but I have not seen evidence of it.
Dr Pita SharplesCan the Minister confirm that the Government is giving funding to gang leaders with whom I am working on these projects?
No, I cannot confirm that, but I can confirm that the member is quite wrong in a statement he made today that the Government is just creating bureaucracies when it comes to tackling youth violence. The member is quite wrong about that. In fact, if he looks at the approach that has been taken towards youth gangs in South Auckland, west Auckland, and central Auckland, he will see it has been to work with many agencies, including non-governmental organisations, not to set up more bureaucracies but to take the resources, personnel, and funding and put them together to work in a way whereby they help to reduce the activity of those youth gangs.
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I am in a dilemma, Madam Speaker, as I know that the Government is funding gang members to work with some of us in the community, yet the answer I have been given from the Minister, who is the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Police, is that she does not know that.
Speaking to the point of order, Madam Speaker, I said that no, I could not confirm the first part of his question. I am happy to get information about that. No doubt there will be members of gangs who are part of non-governmental organisations, but that is not what the member was reported as saying in the New Zealand Herald this morning.
Madam SPEAKER