drug and alcohol addiction services, mental health
mental health services, by investing in
in jobs and houses, stability of our communities.
communities. So, the Green Party won't
won't be supporting this bill, because
because it really doesn't address a live
live problem in ourjustice system. It creates more. Thank you.
Icall
I call Greg O'Connor. I would
I call Greg O'Connor. Iwould like to start by
to start by congratulation the member
member Chris Bishop not for drawing this
this bill but by bringing this bill in
in the first place, because I think it is a very timely bail.
While I thinkthe bill in itself might
While I thinkthe bill in itself
the ideas it brings to the foreare very timely. What it does
bring to the fore are
two major issues that affect
affect not only New Zealanders but New Zealand. That is the issue
of firearms
come together. What this bill does is vaguely touches on both,
but it actually highlights both.
I acknowledge the Hon
actually highlights both. I acknowledge the Hon Mark Mitchell
and Matt King, not yet Honourable
but I'm sure it will happen some
time. INTERRUPTION
time. INTERRUPTION We have
We have all seen gangs start out as a group of thugs, pretty
disorganised, relatively
disorganised, relatively unsophisticated and terrorise, their
sphere of
sphere of intimidation, as like to call
call it, was relatively small. If you reportthem
you reportthem to police, you are in
in their sphere of intimidation. Unfortunately,
Unfortunately, that sphere of intimidation
intimidation has increased considerably.
considerably. Increased considerably,
considerably, mostly on the back of P. So what we
now have, and a piece of
of legislation like this may have been relevant when the
two members opposite, and myself, were policing,
it may have been useful when our gang members were the
it may have been useful when our
larrakins, were running around, that situation has changed
considerably. Because as gangs grew in
sphere of intimidation to the sophistication
sophistication we have today, where their
their sphere of intimidation is not
could talk a lot longer about that, particularly with the rise of the
particularly with the rise of the Comanchero gang, who have added a
whole other
whole other dimension to gang offending in
that was happening we also had the Firearm Act,
Firearm Act, and it was the police who
who were supposed to be policing that Act, and again,
as both those members
members will know, police tooktheir eye off the ball.
They weren't investigating that Act,
weren't policing that Act, and what we
have seen the clash of these two coming
together. That's what, again,
reflect on the bill does acknowledge that.
that. However, this bill, it is insufficient
insufficient and it won't actually go any
go any way towards doing that because
because that degree of sophistication has meant that the
very people
to give an example, I'm well aware that Head Hunters, a gang,
is seriously considering
seriously considering depatching, to make
make it harder to know whether they are gang members. That is a business
decision. The
attracted that intimidation factor, now
now it is so inherent that they actually don't need it. So
whereas it may have been useful
for those gangies,
it may have been useful for those
chase around, it may have been affected in that day but it will not
BELL RUNG
I will opposing this because the fear is if we pass
thinking is we may have done something. It won't. It will not
have made
have made a difference at all. We have
have to take some action. There are some
some ridiculously easy ways to get firearms. Today, in
research for this, you can
get students who join a pistol club
in Auckland, go monthly, get
monthly, get a firearm, do a year, leave,
went. We had an inquiry into this in the
the last term. That will have to be fixed.
fixed. The other thing is people can come
come into New Zealand, buy a firearm,
any documentation that proves they had
had some firearms licence at another country
country which we can't check. That person will
person will then have a firearm, they leave the country a month later
firearm. This is the sort of thing we
we have to fix. While again I congratulate the member for
bringing this to this
House, it is not enough, it is too
late. We have to look at this much more deeply.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I call Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi. Iwould like to
congratulate the member, as