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The Government has ruled out new laws allowing local authorities to tear down gang fortifications and houses, saying existing laws give them enough powers to do so.
Justice Minister Annette King considered a law change as part of the Government's new Organised CrimeStrategy. But recently released Cabinet papers show she rejected beefing up legal options to tackle gang houses as she believed that existing legislation was sufficient.
The Local Government Act allows councils to order the removal of any fence, structure or vegetation from a property without notice, although affected parties can appeal.
It also allows orders to be served for the removal of homes which house people convicted of or likely to commit an offence, and fences or vegetation around them.
"Although the notion of orders permitting the destruction of gang houses is fairly radical, they appear to be available," Ms King said.
"The definition of 'structure' under the Resource Management Act, for example, expressly includes houses and buildings ... I do not at this stage support new laws relating to the removal of gang houses as existing legislation appears to be adequate."
Ms King's decision has sparked a furious reaction from support party New Zealand First - whose votes Labour will be relying on to implement its recently announced Organised Crime Agency. Law and order spokesman Ron Mark said both major parties were pussyfooting around the issue of tackling gangs.
"As long as they continue to condone the existence of gangs, it doesn't matter what sort of house they live in. They will live where they want, they will do what they want, and they will continue to thumb their noses at the law and at any silly politician who is silly enough to let them exist in the first place."
Mr Mark plans to introduce aprivate member's bill to Parliament within the next few weekswhich will make gang membership illegal.
He said it was nonsensical thatthe Government should even beconsidering whether gang houses and fortifications should be allowedto stand when the fundamentalissue was whether gangs shouldbe legally allowed to exist.
"Rather than National and Labour having a silly debate amongst themselves as to what is and what isn't a gang fortification and how high a fence should or shouldn't be, the issue that they both have to face up to is that gangs should not be permitted to operate."
