Source: Radio New Zealand
A new member’s Bill pulled from the biscuit tin aims to stop publicly funding organisations with ties to gangs. RNZ/John Edens
A member’s Bill could stop public funding to gangs and organisations with gang ties. It’s unlikely to be a hard sell, but one expert says it’s ‘cutting off our nose to spite our face’.
National MP Rima Nakhle is drawing a hard line on gangs: no taxpayer money. Not to gangs and not to anyone linked to them.
Her member’s bill to stop public funding flowing to organisations with gang ties has been drawn from the biscuit tin, and she tells The Detail that National is “sending a very strong message that the people administering the poison are not going to be administering the antidote as well”.
“We are cracking down on gangs, we are cracking down on the misery they are causing in our communities,” she says.
“If I had a child… or family member addicted to meth and then I found out that the people who sold them the meth are getting money to take them off meth, I [would] honestly want to cry. We can’t send that message.”
The last government gave $2.75 million via Kainga Ora in 2021 to a marae-based rehabilitation initiative called Kahukura.
It was developed by Hard2Reach, a consultancy founded by Mongrel Mob life member Harry Tam, and Mongrel Mob members became key leaders of the programme designed to “reduce crime and harm from methamphetamine dependency”, especially among gang associates that other rehab programmes had found hard to engage.
“Rightfully so, a lot of people got very upset about that,” Nakhle says.
In 2024, the coalition government announced Kahukura would stop receiving money from the Proceeds of Crime Fund.
But while that initiative was under the Labour government, former PM Jacinda Ardern said it took inspiration from a National policy.
Nakhle isn’t “100 percent clear” if the coalition government has given any money to gangs since getting into power, and after The Detail’s interview, a National spokesperson couldn’t give a definitive yes or no.
In a written response a spokesperson says, “National isn’t aware of any funding that has gone to gangs under the coalition government. Given this government’s approach to gangs, it’s our expectation that government departments would raise anything relevant to that.”
Nakhle says gangs won’t get any more money on her watch.
“For some reason, or many reasons, it does make me very angry,” Nakhle says.
National Party MP Rima Nakhle in Select Committee. VNP / Phil Smith
She says one of the main reasons it makes her angry is that “victims, for me, are really always at the forefront of my mind.”
“And I think to myself, gangs are the reason why most of our drugs in our New Zealand communities are on our shores. They are the ones that are bringing them in, to a great extent, and they are the ones selling them.
“And to say that the sellers are going to become the saviours is just like a smack in the face, particularly of parents, grandparents and family members who are going through the living hell of their whānau members, their family members, being addicted to the drugs that are being sold by gangs to begin with.
“I get so angry thinking about it.”
‘Extremely short-sighted’
But critics are warning that the bill will potentially cut funding to frontline programmes that work with gang members trying to turn their lives around.
Dr Trevor Bradley lectures in criminology at Victoria University.
Bradley told The Detail that the bill is “a great optic, particularly in the lead up to the election later in the year… this is just a natural extension of National’s punitive get-tough approach but I think it’s extremely short-sighted”.
“We do have a very big problem with meth in this country, and we know that there is a strong association between gangs and meth consumption and meth distribution,” he says.
“If we want to reduce that consumption, in particular, then we have to work with those people who are actually problematic consumers of it, and we therefore have to work with the gangs and their gang membership and the associates, and the families and whānau, and not to do so would be to turn down a really important opportunity to make a positive impact.”
He thought the Kahukura programme in Hawke’s Bay “showed pretty good potential” and he was “quite disappointed” when the funding was pulled by the coalition government.
“It did show signs of success, it did have pretty good compliance conditions, and there was pretty strong oversight.
“I think the bottom line is if we want to reach those hard-to-reach communities, and of course gang communities are a very good example of that, then we have to work with them.”
Still, Nakhle argues the principle is simple: public money should go to organisations that uphold the law, not undermine it.
But what counts as a gang link? Is it membership, association or history, and who makes that call?
“There are a few of our laws that do define what gangs are,” Nakhle says.
“And if we were to put it in a nutshell, there are three aspects or characteristics which, in our law, define a gang.
“Firstly, it’s got to be a group of three or more people; second, they have got to have a common name, or signal, or symbol, or colour; and third, they need to be associated with or are involved in criminal activity.
“Plus, there is a national gang list, with the names of gangs known to us, and that list does get updated.”
The debate now shifts to Parliament, where the bill will test not just political appetite for a tougher stance on gangs, but how far lawmakers are willing to go to draw a line in the sand.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
