Sociologist and senior lecturer Jarrod Gilbert. Photo / George Heard
A National bid to ban gang convoys on Tauranga roads would be "utterly ineffectual", a gang expert says.
The party's Tauranga byelection candidate Sam Uffindell announced on Monday that if he won the election, he would introduce a member's bill to ban gang convoys from Tauranga roads.
The bill would allow police to issue $500 fines to gang members riding in convoys and impound their vehicles for 28 days. Uffindell said locals were sick of "obnoxious gang members" taking over roads and the "anti-cruising" law would give police more power to address the problem.
Jarrod Gilbert, a senior lecturer and sociologist at the University of Canterbury, is an expert on the issue of gangs in New Zealand.
He said he would "give the chances of such a bill making it into the law about the same as getting a metre of snow on Mount Maunganui".
He said there had been a "plethora" of similar bills introduced over the past 50 years "that have come to nothing".
"And even when they have been passed into law, they've been utterly ineffectual."
He said while the bill might "sound good" in an election, he thought it would "not prove to be a serious effort in countering the issue of gangs".
However, ex-drug kingpin and founder of the Pūwhakamua rehabilitation program Billy Macfarlane said he thought the bill "would go some way towards fixing the problem".
But he said it would not be enough on its own.
He said existing laws needed to be enforced more strongly, including the reverse onus of proof for the proceeds of crime.
He said a message needed to be sent to gangs that "we're not accepting it [their behaviour]".
However, he said he does not support an approach that is "all about locking people up".
"We know that you can't lock the problem up, it doesn't fix it - in most cases, it makes it worse."
Police Minister Poto Williams said the Government had "deployed more than 1400 more police, more than doubled our organised crime staff and invested $94 million into tackling gangs".
She said the Government was focused on strong enforcement and addressing the social factors that drew people to join gangs.
She said the $562m allotted to gang harm in the Budget "means the Tactical Response Model, which focuses on keeping frontline officers safe, will be rolled out nationwide".
Police were also taking nationwide approaches to the possession of unlawful firearms, firearms-related violence, and unlawful behaviour of gangs.
Uffindell told a public meeting in Tauranga on Monday night that gangs were operating with "a lot of impunity on our roads".
"We shouldn't have to put up with this sort of crap, and it's not good enough."
He said under a National government, "gangs would find out pretty quickly that it doesn't pay to be hooning around on our roads".
MP Mark Mitchell, National's justice spokesman and a former police officer, was also at the meeting. He said the current "lawlessness" was the worst he could remember.
A man in the audience who said he was an ex-gang member and was in a gang for 16 years challenged National's solutions.
"[They are an] ambulance at the bottom of the cliff - you're waiting for them to jump."
He said harsh gang laws like those implemented in Australia, which Mitchell had praised, "forced gangs [to be] more underground, more organised".
He said it was not fair to the police to expect them to solve the problem of gangs.
"The solution is not in the police, it's not even in parliament - the solution is in the home."
Mitchell praised his "powerful message" and encouraged him to "get out there and keep sharing".
He said National's "cornerstone is social investment", but "if [gang members] choose not to [reform], we will continue to apply the pressure".
"Any gang member who wants to leave, I'll be the first one [to help them] ... if they choose to stay in the gang, I want the police harassing them.
"If you've got a mate in the gangs, tell them to get out because there's a lot of heat coming."
Another audience member stood to confront the ex-gang member and took issue with his comment government regulations "forced" gangs underground.
"I have never heard the government force people to drink, smoke, eat KFC, commit crimes ... that is an individual choice."
At the end of the meeting, members of the crowd told the Bay of Plenty Times that Uffindell was a strong candidate.
"He's been around - a very intelligent man," said one woman.
Another man said he was a "fresh face" needed in Tauranga.
One found the candidate "was not very forthright" but praised Mitchell for standing his ground against dissent from the ex-gang member.