Gangs and Organised Crime Bill

Hone Harawira, Maori Party Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau
Thursday 10 September 2009; 4pm

I want to move from the last speaker, from the Barney Rubble School of Criminology, to commend some of the fine contributions that have been heard this afternoon.

Last Tuesday, some 300 locals gathered in the centre of Whanganui, to protest the local council decision to ban gang insignia within city boundaries.

One of the locals, a man with a social conscience but no gang affiliations, called the decision "an erosion of civil liberties and a cheap publicity stunt by our mayor, masquerading as his attempt to solve a tragic social dilemma”.

There is no question that gangs are a tragic social dilemma, and the social cost of their activities is reason enough for action.

At 8% of court charges and 18% of the prison population, government’s gang strategy is costing the country nearly $200 million a year; and that strategy has some interesting history, including:

* Rob Muldoon’s interventions way back in the 70’s;

* the 1979 Parliamentary Committee on Violent Offending;

* the 1981 committee of inquiry into gangs (the Comber report) out of which came the Group Employment Liaison Scheme (GELS);

* the 1987 Commission chaired by Justice Sir Clinton Roper);

And now here we are in 2009 with a new plan – take away the patches, knock down the high fences, make gang affiliation a factor at sentencing, expand police surveillance powers, up the penalties, and cross our fingers that things will change.

The background to this bill can be summed up in just a few words – wave a stick and if that don’t work, wave a bigger stick.

This bill is all about penalties and punishment, and yet all the research tells us that the heavy handed approach they adopted in Los Angeles for example, actually led to a huge increase in the number of gangs and gang crimes, while over in New York, a different strategy of community development, educational opportunity, and urban renewal has led to a massive decrease in gang activity.

And that’s why the Maori Party supports more positive and effective strategies of dealing with gang activity, because we know that you address crime by dealing to the causes, not just reacting to the effects.

I know that Pete Sharples and his crew have been working with networks to address some of the more disturbing issues associated with youth gangs in South Auckland, through community initiatives built around employment and education schemes.

I know that youth gangs don’t always buy into a lot of the ‘youth at risk’ and ‘fresh start’ programmes that work for others, so it’s good to see some innovative stuff being done to change attitudes in youth gangs, and indeed to change the very nature of gang culture.

So big ups to Pete, his TPK crew, and the outside connections as well, for focusing on turning kids to the positive, rather than just trying to bash the negative out of them.

The evidence is clear Mr Speaker – the programmes that are effective in turning kids away from crime are the ones that give them a belief in themselves, and hope for the future.

And THAT’S where we should be focusing our attentions, our strategies, our resources and our energies – investing in literacy, education, stable employment, decent housing, and the elimination of institutional racism; and helping communities to respect one another, to care for their neighbours, to watch out for everyone else’s kids, and to turn themselves around.

Mr Speaker another concern we had was a proposed amendment to lower the test of gang association as an aggravating factor at sentencing, so that instead of having to be “involved” in a gang or be a gang “participant”, an accused can be sentenced based on “the nature and extent of any connection” between the accused, the offence and gangs.

Which is kind of like hauling Paula Bennett over the judicial coals if one of her hoodlum in-laws brings drugs into her house, or convicting Shane Jones because he knew of one of his whänau putting the bash on somebody who had threatened one of his daughters, or Tau Henare ending up in court because one of his out-laws runs him out to the airport in a stolen car, or Georgina te Heuheu … well, maybe not Georgie, but you know what I mean.

And not just men either – women too – and the women’s prison population has doubled over the last decade, and 60% of them are Maori.

Indeed, just last month a book came out called Trust: A True Story of Women and Gangs, the story of a unique and unruly bunch of women, with varying gang affiliations, who lived together, and stood side-by-side in a world that didn’t care a jot about their existence, their lives, their experiences, and their struggles with poverty and their hassles with the police; and the final chapter brings to mind a quote which fits right here, “Being Maori was always their foundation stone. But now, for most, it’s their search, their journey, their passion and their healing”.

Mr Speaker, I stand with the Maori Party in opposing this bill because it is a reaction based on ignorance and fear, and I stand against it because it is based on failed theories of punitive action over positive thinking, and I stand against it because will NOT lead to a more just society, it will in fact lead to greater injustice and a greater reaction to that injustice.

BUT if I could Mr Speaker, let me also make one small concession.

I watched the TV the first night of the ban in Whanganui and I saw all the brothers gathered in town, and I have to say they looked … well, they looked different.

They didn’t look mean, they didn’t look threatening, they didn’t look like a volcano ready to explode. They just looked like whänau, like a lot of my cousins and friends from all round the country.

And yet those same guys, when they’re patched up, scarfed up, hoodies on, gloved fists pumping the air in anger and defiance … they look like a-holes and they often act like a-holes to fit the image.

I liked what I saw that first night after the ban …

It’s just a pity that this bill is all stick and no carrot, because I know, as I suspect most MPs in this house know, that you got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative if you want to latch on to the affirmative, or you’re gonna get messed up by Mr In-Between.

ENDS

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