The announcement of the coalition Government's long-touted anti-gang laws has been met with a mixed reaction, with Labour describing it as "impractical" and a law professor labelling it a "political gimmick".
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell announced today that gang patches would be banned in public, and police would be given extra powers to stop gang members congregating under new legislation.
Associate Law Professor Carrie Leonetti said that the proposed legislation was modelled after controversial legislation passed in Western Australia.
In 2021, gang members were told to use wear makeup and band aids to cover up insignia, leading to high-profile protests and arrests.
"The bottom line is that there is no evidence that Western Australia’s anti-insignia and dispersal law has done anything to reduce gang-related crime, so I’m sceptical of the decision to model it anyway."
She quoted a report on gangs issued by the Prime Minister's chief science advisor last year which recommended that New Zealand adopt a public health approach to reducing gang-related harm.
Reducing harm, the report said, would require tackling the underlying and unsolved societal issues, including inequity, inter-generational trauma, housing and family violence.
Leonetti told 1News that "zero tolerance" policies would likely backfire because they can build distrust in communities most affected by gang-related crime.
"This proposed legislation runs the risk of strengthening internal gang cohesion, reinforcing anti‐social attitudes, and simply displacing offending elsewhere rather than addressing the problems underlying gangs at its roots.
"It is reactive rather than proactive, when we know that primary prevention aimed at preventing kids from joining gangs by removing the incentives created by deprivation and discrimination in the first place is likely to be more effective."
Leonetti also said she had serious human rights concerns about the proposed legislation.
"It is a serious restriction on the rights of bodily autonomy, freedom of expression, and freedom of association of people who sport tattoos and clothing associated with gangs."
There was "potential for abuse" of the legislation because of the light details surrounding what constitutes gang insignia and the limits of police powers to order people to cease communication with associates, she added.
"The Western Australian law extends to social media, with gang members being ordered to remove online posts. That seems like a sweeping police power to stifle expression."
Māori and Pasifika men would likely be disproportionally affected, she said.
"If the Government is going to invite this kind of backlash and authorise a significant infringement on people’s human rights, I’d like to see evidence that the policy will be effective in reducing gang-related crime, and there is none."
Political parties react
Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said that front line police are already stretched dealing with criminal behaviour, and that being the "wardrobe police" was not the best use of their time.
"New Zealanders expect that gang members will be caught and punished if they’re committing crimes – it doesn’t make a difference what they’re wearing. In fact it’s likely that banning gang patches will only make police jobs more difficult as they’ll be harder to find."
Andersen said the Government needs to back police with resourcing rather than cutting their budget.
“We support continued efforts to reduce the impact and influence of gangs in New Zealand, but it is disappointing that the Government is diverting resources from effective operations such as targeting the financial networks of gangs – hitting them in the pocket where it hurts them most – and ignoring the evidence that their actions will have no significant impact on reducing crime," she said.
Labour's justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said that the "superficial policy" added little to existing powers.
"We all agree that gang intimidation must stop, but insisting that Police use their resources to chase down people for wearing jackets, bandannas, hats, even jewellery like rings, rather than criminal behaviour, is not the best way to do that."
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