National Party leader and Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon has reiterated his pledge to crack down on gangs and said he has "no interest" in meeting with senior Mongrel Mob member Harry Tam.
It comes after Tam yesterday called for prosocial solutions to gang problems.
"If Chris [Luxon] wants to meet with me, that would be great," he said.
"But he doesn't seem to be a person that likes to listen to people like me."
Asked about the invitation this morning on Breakfast, Luxon said: "No interest really.
"My message really clearly is, if you want to leave a gang, that's good, we encourage you to do that.
"Life for gang members is going to get harder under a National government, we've been really clear and upfront about that."
It comes as police are employing special powers in Tairāwhiti, Ōpōtiki and Whakatāne, giving officers extended search and seizure abilities. Tam said the special powers may "temper" gang tensions "for a while" — but he was concerned about police overreach.
"It's been good to see the police using some of the powers that have been recently passed," Luxon said.
"We want to make sure we get more of those tools to police, so they've got more powers to be able to do that."
National's plan for gangs includes banning gang patches in public and making gang membership an aggravating factor in criminal sentencing. Ultimately, Luxon was clear in his assessment of the situation.
"Gangs are not good," he said. "They want all the rights of being Kiwi, not prepared to take the responsibilities, and they peddle a lot of misery across this country in terms of the drug trade.
"There's a lot that we can do around social investment, which we've talked about. Getting to underlying causes and working on that — around poverty issues, housing security issues, education.
"I want to say to people very clearly, gang life is not a good choice and actually there's nothing good about gang life in my view.
"I know I'm talking bluntly about it but it's important."
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