Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on the Government's gang patch bill passing

The Government's new bill banning gang patches in public and giving police more power to disperse gangs and bring in non-consorting court orders has passed.

Last-minute changes extended the insignia ban to being visible in cars - and inside homes of repeat ban offenders.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says critics of the bill have labelled it a violation of free speech.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Soper, senior political correspondent, is with us right now.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey, Barry, good afternoon. Hither.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Okay, So the gang patch ban has finally passed. That's
done in dustin.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
An Well, just passed. Yeah, and it's interesting. There were
a couple of aspects to the bill that really upset
its opponents. And I was fascinated by Carmel Seppaloni not
knowing which way the Labor Party was going to vote,
give me a break with no route at the beginning,
can you be? I don't know where she was. I

(00:28):
don't know where her head was, but it was somewhere
down Treasure Island, I'm sure. But I mean, it's incredible
that there are two aspects to this bill that have
come to the fall recently. And one was and the
latest one was gang patches and cars. People running around
were displaying them within cars. Well, that's now been covered,

(00:49):
some of the gang patches. On the third conviction for
having a gag packs, the cops can go into your
house and pick it up. Well, Paul gold Smith and
I heard him on your program just a short while ago.
He faced a number of questions in Parliament this afternoon
about that police ability to raide homes looking for gang insignia.

(01:12):
Now Taku taish Camp from the Mali Party told him
it breached human rights.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Dealing with gangs who pedal misery is in the benefit
of all New Zealanders, including Malji.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
Banning gang patches from Mrai and Tangui Hana is an
invasion of manamotuhaky Tikunga and a gross breach of Tatarti
or wait.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
We are limiting the freedom of expression of gang members
to where their patches in public. That's a statement of fact.
But we're also concerned about the rights of ordinary New
Zealanders to go about their lives without fear and without
having to deal with the intimidation and the trouble and
chaos and mayhem that gang's cause across our community.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, the statistics relating to gangs are terrible. But later,
of course they moved on to debating the and final
reading of the bill making the moves against gang's law
and allowing police to raid those homes for gang patches.
That's incensed labors. Duncan web Nos can be known about that.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
Searches can be intrusive, disruptive and traumatic for children and
other Farno, who reside with a person who's subject to
the search. Whilst some of our homes may be our castles,
that fundamental principle of the sanctity of a private residence
has been utterly undercut and undermined. What is the risk

(02:33):
of someone's gang insignia, a bandanna, a ring, a jacket,
sitting in a wardrobe. Where is the harm? Where is
the victim? There isn't one. There's no harm and no victim.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
That's maybe why camel Sepaloni was a little confused. Well,
they're all over the bloody place on this one. Honestly,
they just have to find something to complain about. And again, Ring,
I don't know whether that would be covered by the legislation.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Now I see that Barbara Edmonds of the Labor Party's
been having a crack at Nicola Willison the National Party,
blaming them for what's happening in the economy at the moment.
I'm not sure that that's going to land, do you know, Well,
you know.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
We know how these statistics lag, and you know there
was revision to the December twenty twenty three quarter and
that showed that technically the country wasn't in recession. So
you know, we can now say thankfully that we moved
out of it, but did we really? I mean, that's
I guess that'll go on being debated by economists. But look,

(03:40):
it's you know that when you look at the pickup
in economic activity, it hasn't been great. You've seen a
fallaway in construction. Everybody knew that was the case. You
see decline and retail and wholesale businesses, and I think
you alluded to those earlier. I guess now the focus
will go there's a bit more spending from the public,

(04:01):
but the focus will now go on the Reserve Bank
and whether they look at more cutting to the ocr
which will be easing people's people struggling to pay their
mortgage interest rates. And you'd have to say, if they
do that, that's a good thing because people don't have
a lot of money to play with these days.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
I don't have a long time at all, but just
tell me really quickly, what's going on with this resolutionary Israel?

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, New Zealand backed it. Actually I had a bit
of audio, but I won't play it was Old Winston
on his feet about it. But New Zealand was one
of one hundred and twenty four countries that supported a
United Nations General Assembly resolution are telling the Palestinian are
telling Israel to get out of Palestine occupied territories within

(04:45):
a year. And you know, we agree with that. He
was questioned about it in Parliament this afternoon, but he
probably told us what we already know, that we support
a two state solution to this terrible problem in the
Middle East and stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Mary, thank you very so for seeing your political correspondence
giving away from five.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
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