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The Government is going to double the sentence for anyone taking part in an organised crime group in an effort to crack down on gangs.
The measure immediately ran into criticism from the Maori Party which said it opened the door for police to label any grouping of Maori together as a gang.
Justice Minister Mark Burton told Parliament today that several laws would be amended to make life tougher for gangs.
He said the Crimes Act would be changed to see the maximum sentence for participating in an organised crime group doubled to 10 years.
Police would be given increased powers to bug gang houses in investigations of organised crime -- something recommended in a Law Commission report out today.
The Government also said that it would now make it a crime to participate in organised crime as a stand alone offence.
The Sentencing Act would be amended to ensure that if a offence was related to organised crime that would be taken into account in sentencing.
NZ First MP Ron Mark said it was a "sick irony" that the government proclaimed measures to clamp down on gangs but had not outlawed them.
National accused the Government of ripping off its ideas but Mr Burton said they were the result of considerable work and ongoing work was being done.
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday said work on the changes started some weeks ago, when officials were asked to look at different measures in light of a drive-by shooting in Wanganui.
Two-year-old Jhia Te Tua was killed after Mongrel Mob members shot at the house where she lived with her mother and Black Power member father.
"But we've certainly been looking at ways of tightening the law so that the police have a better chance of getting convictions around gang related crime."
National Justice spokesman Simon Power said Labour had promised "a strategy on organised crime for years but nothing has happened."
Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said that the measure was unfair. Not all gangs were involved in organised criminal activity.
He also said it raised the possibility that a group of Maori together would be automatically labelled a gang and therefore under suspicion of being involved in organised crime.
- NZPA
