Whanganui MP Harete Hipango has some concerns regarding the proposed policing unit to address gangs.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui MP Harete Hipango has some concerns regarding the proposed policing unit to address gangs.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui's MP has met with the Australian policing unit her party leader Simon Bridges wants to replicate in New Zealand.
Harete Hipango is in Australia for a parliamentary exchange, with part of the trip including a meeting with the Commander Criminal Groups Squad and the Strike Force Raptor from NewSouth Wales Police.
She said the meeting was at the request of National police spokesman Brett Hudson who is also on the delegation.
It follows an announcement this week by National party leader Simon Bridges who said a National government would "harass and disrupt gangs every day, with the single-minded goal of eliminating them".
He proposed a policing unit that could check for liquor licences if alcohol was served at a gang pad or inspect tax records for welfare fraud.
But Hipango said she had some concerns and that it was a "drastic step" and "forcefully provocative".
"I shall be listening with acute and keen mind, denoting that Australia as a nation is not as advanced as Aotearoa, New Zealand, in addressing the contextual social and historical issues, grievances, injustices and consequences of its societal indigenous inequities as New Zealand has done," she said in an email to the Chronicle.
Recent figures show the number of patched gang members in New Zealand has increased by 26 per cent, or around 1400 people, since October 2017.
National leader Simon Bridges is proposing a policing unit to eliminate gangs.
Photo / Paul Taylor
In Australia, the Raptors also enforced a law where gang members faced jail if they ignored a warning not to associate with criminals, which made it illegal for them to be in the same place as other gang members.
Hipango said the proposal was part of a party document to provoke discussion and feedback - which it had done - but she said it was a drastic step and she held some concerns.
"It is forcefully provocative and provocatively forceful and will be met with resistance – such which may well create more risk than safety.
"Some of that resistance also is how it will be effectively resourced and operationally implemented with and already stretched police force, if it were to proceed.
"I am not a proponent of such force where issues of human rights, bill of rights and the predictable impact on families and children being an immediate or indirect risk.
"It is an extremely difficult and fraught issue which requires guidance from experts and specialists in defence, security and policing."
The Strike Force Raptor unit handles all gang related incidents from traffic violations to more serious offences.
Photo / Supplied
Hipango said gangs were just one part of an overall New Zealand safety, policing, security and community strategy.
This week former National Whanganui MP Chester Borrows said he was sceptical about bringing a policing policy from Australia into New Zealand.
"The police in New Zealand have lots of powers now in any event, and there are lots of gang initiatives which have been across government agency too, so I'm not quite sure what's being proposed is anything new," he said.
Borrows said the proposed unit seems similar to a method previously used in Whanganui which didn't work to "drive gangs out of town".
