Former Detective Sergeant and Police Ten 7 host Rob Lemoto joins the NZ Herald Premium live panel 'Inside the Gangs' today. Photo / Andrew Warner
Former Detective Sergeant and Police Ten 7 host Rob Lemoto joins the NZ Herald Premium live panel 'Inside the Gangs' today. Photo / Andrew Warner
Join us for today's NZ Herald Premium live panel, on nzherald.co.nz, from 12.30pm.
Membership of New Zealand gangs is at a high. Will the Government’s plans to crack down on gang patches and public gatherings work? Join us atnzherald.co.nz/live at 12.30pm on Tuesday to hear from former Detective Sergeant and Police Ten 7 host Rob Lemoto and seniorinvestigative journalist Jared Savage - and to have the chance to ask your own questions.
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The Government’s planned new laws to crack down on gangs “will do nothing” to reduce the growing number of members, a research group says.
Instead, they raise a variety of other suggestions, including banning New Zealand media from publishing and broadcasting gang regalia and insignia - a proposal that has been rejected by a group of New Zealand’s most senior editors.
The Gang Legislation Amendment Bill is passing through Parliament and is set to be in force from November.
Among the law changes: it will be a criminal offence to display gang insignia in public places; police will have new powers to disperse gang members from gathering in public; and gang membership will be an aggravating factor at a court sentencing. There will also be “non-consorting orders”, to stop specific gang members from associating and communicating with each other for three years.
The changes come as membership of gangs continues to rise, with an estimated 9000-plus prospects and patched gang members now in New Zealand.
One research group - H2R Research and Consulting Ltd - believes the new laws will do nothing to stem the rising number of gang members, and believes the Government needs to adopt more of a “carrot-and-stick” approach, as the country saw under the leadership of former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
He worked closely with the gangs, with work schemes and using sport to help keep gang members focused socially.
Lady Thea Muldoon with Black Power members after her husband's memorial service in 1992. Photo / Martin Hunter
The research group backs that philosophy, believing that the new laws will simply drive gangs underground. Its critique of the new laws has been authored by Harry Tam, a former public servant and honorary life member of the Mongrel Mob, and public health researcher Angie Wilkinson.
They wrote: “If the Government is serious about preventing gang intimidation of the public, then it needs to identify ways to prevent the news media from sensationalising gang incidents.”
It would like to see the new laws prevent media from publishing or broadcasting gang insignia and regalia. “The news media is a major contributor to displaying gang regalia, more so than the gang members themselves.”
But that suggestion has been rejected by the Media Freedom Committee, a group of senior editors representing New Zealand’s biggest newsrooms.
“The Media Freedom Committee would hold grave concerns should the government put in place any new restrictions on how we cover gang activity in this country. We think sunlight is always the best disinfectant,” said MFC chair Phil O’Sullivan, who is also head of news and current affairs at TVNZ.
“The authors quote research about media sensationalising gang activities which dates back over 30 years. News entities in this country adhere to strict standards around balance and fairness as this is what our audiences expect.
”We’d note gangs tend to wear their patches even when the cameras aren’t rolling.”
Police Minister Mark Mitchell, right, and Police Commissioner Andrew Coster. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In July, Police Minister Mark Mitchell - in response to a parliamentary question - said there were 9198 prospects and patched gang members as of the previous month.
That was up on the 9100 he revealed as Opposition police spokesman in July last year and the 8607 only three months earlier, in April 2023.
Mitchell had consistently used numbers such as those to accuse the Labour Government of allowing the gangs to thrive.
So why are the numbers still rising? And will the planned crackdown have any effect? What do police think of the new laws? And just how are the gangs operating these days? Is the media really to blame for these issues?
Don’t miss our special NZ Herald Premium panel on nzherald.co.nz at 12.30pm today, to hear directly from former detective sergeant and Police Ten 7 host Rob Lemoto and senior NZ Herald investigative journalist Jared Savage.
The panel discussion will screen live for all NZ Herald Premium subscribers - use the commenting function below to ask your own questions ahead of that, and tune in from 12.30pm. To become an NZ Herald Premium subscriber, see here.
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
