Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made what might be important progress when she got the agreement of the new Australian PM, Anthony Albanese, to adopt a more nuanced approach to the deportation of New Zealand-born offenders, known as "501s".
Albanese will consider avoiding the deportation of those offenders who by chance of birth are technically Kiwis but have lived nearly all of their lives In Australia.
Even a slight reduction in this flow of potential gang members would be a help, but there are positive ways of limiting recruitment into gangs which should be more widely explored.
Many Māori, who make up more than half of New Zealand's prisoners, are recruited into gangs while serving their sentences and, even worse, are led into crime on release.
Statistics tell us that almost two-thirds of Māori prisoners have a driving offence as a part of their first sentence.
Typically, the offender drives unlicensed repeatedly until caught with some other offence.
At this point, a jail sentence is often imposed.
Given the fact that it is now costing everyone who pays taxes nearly $140,000 a year to keep one person in jail, it would be far cheaper to help the offender to get a driver's licence when they first come to the attention of the courts.
As readers of this column will be aware, the Howard League operates a programme that began in Hawke's Bay which is aimed at getting licences for recently released prisoners.
This has now achieved more than 13,000 licences and received ongoing government funding in the 2022 Budget.
A few long-sighted judges have begun referring early offenders into the programme.
In one case, an illiterate unlicensed repeat offender was told by a judge that he must go to the Howard League instructor in the region and get his licence or face a jail term next time he appeared.
Our brilliant instructor acted as his reader for the test, and he passed with full marks, as did his partner.
At his next court appearance, the judge congratulated the offender and wiped his accumulated fines.
The cost of getting a driver's licence for people who have difficulty making ends meet at the best of times is often a hurdle they simply cannot afford.
When I got my driver's licence in Hastings the day I turned 15, it took about 20 minutes and cost 10 shillings.
The three-stage licence we now insist on – depending on pass rates – can and often does cost hundreds of dollars.
Something like 80 per cent of the now plentiful job opportunities specify at least a restricted driver's licence, and many established gang members will cease criminal activity if they can get good paid employment.
Job seekers with advanced licences - truck, forklift and WTR (wheels, tracks, and rollers) licences - are in heavy demand and are well paid.
The Howard League saw a clear example of this in a provincial town where one of our programmes operates.
Sixteen probationers - mostly recently released prisoners, a majority of whom were gang members, sat and passed their forklift licences with Howard League support.
When I checked with our instructor about three months later, she was able to tell me that all but two of the newly qualified forklift drivers had found employment, mostly in horticulture and agricultural processing industries.
A local police officer, off the record, told our instructor offending by these people appeared to have ceased.
Policies to help the many gang members who want to take part in normal society by acquiring the skills necessary to find employment should go alongside the initiatives announced this week.
Such programmes are much more likely to be a long-term solution to the gang problem in this country.
Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is chief executive of the NZ Howard League and a former Labour Party president. All opinions are his and not those of Hawke's Bay Today
