Paul Goldsmith: Justice Minister responds to fresh concerns over gang patch ban

Changes could be in store for gang legislation after a judge handed back a patch to a Mongrel Mob member. 

Police were ordered to return the patch after its owner was arrested for wearing it publicly. 

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says he can't comment on decisions of judges, but isn't ruling out changing the law. 

"There's a legal process to go through, it may be appealed - I don't know. We'll wait and see how it all plays out, and if we find that we've got a problem, we'll fix it."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the Justice Minister is heading back a criticism over
the gang patch law. The criticisms cropped up after a
judge gave a confiscated patch back to among the mob
member because of Tea Kanger. Paul Goldsmith is the Justice
Minister and with us, Hey.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Paul, Good afternoon, Heather. Yes, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
You sound like you're worried about what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, I mean, obviously, look the fastest way for a
Minister of Justice to get sectors to criticize individual judges decision.
So I'm not going to be doing that or commenting
on it.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
I no, I won't ask you to. What I want
to know is whether you're going to change the law
to force the destruction of the patches so they can't
be handed back.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, if we need to, we will. I mean, obviously
there's a legal process to go through. It may be appealed,
I don't know, And so we'll wait and see how
that all plays out, and if we find that we've
got a problem with the legislation, and we'll fix it.
But you know, it's been very successful in a large
number of cases so far, and certainly send out a

(01:07):
clear message and I think everybody in the community has
seen the difference.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, no, we know that, we know that, and I
mean this is one judge and on one mong the member.
But when you warned that this might happen if you didn't,
if you didn't destroy the patches.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well, I look, I mean we passed the legislation. We
think it's very clear, and so you know there's a
broader issue around Well, I mean, look, it's an issue
that an individual judge makes a decision. I can't comment
on that. I'm not going to comment on that, and
so I've just stopped talking before I do.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Do you make fair enough? Do you make the decision
as to whether appeal, whether to appeal or is that no?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
No, no, no, that's again totally independent. That's up to
the police, I suppose.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, yeah, now listen on another subject. You're making some
changes to help event organizers get liquor licenses.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
What are you doing well, I mean, last week we
announced our creative strategy, which has got two elements to it.
We want to increase the number of New Zealanders engaging
with the arts and the creative sector more generally. And
then secondly, we want to make more money out of
the arts, and it's a potentially big export area for
the country and so forth. And you know, one of
the things that we sometimes don't recognize as many people

(02:20):
in the creative sector generally small businesses trying to make
a buck, and it's no different to any other business.
We want to make life a bit easier for them.
And I remember saying talking to an arts audience and
somebody saying, well, you know, actually, the most useful thing
you can do for me, I'm a music promoter and
I have sections make it not so goddamn hard to
get a let a license for a special concert that

(02:40):
I'm putting on. And so we responded to that, and
so now the legislation that's coming to be coming through
will when it comes to a large scale event, will
increase it from four hundred people to two thousand people
before you have to go through an event management plan
and then we'll have you only have to do it
if it's based on a risk framework and basically just
try and take out some red tape for people just

(03:02):
trying to get a group of people together, recognizing that
when you listen to music, having a party sometimes it's
quite nice to have a beer.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Sometimes it is. Thank you, Paul, I appreciate it. Paul Goldsmith,
the Justice Minister. Twenty one away from six For more
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