KEY POINTS:
You know a government is running out of puff when politicians say, "If a problem was easy, it would have been fixed years ago".
Equally pathetic is a former politician saying, "I told you so." But I did tell you so. I almost coughed my coffee through my nose when I heard someone on a talk-back radio show say, "Mike Moore talked tough on gangs years ago but did nothing about it." True, but I've got a good excuse: I was not elected.
None of this changes the fact that New Zealand has a gang problem that has existed for several generations and is getting worse. Past policies have failed. Admit that first, then accept this problem infects our society, is a threat to our security, and has the potential to corrupt our society.
I wrote this in a book some years ago, but action only emerges if there's a killing or mayhem.
For many politicians, a problem only exists if it is on the front page and appears in opinion polls. Take the time spent on the anti-smacking legislation. Action to appease public opinion was cleverly taken when votes were being lost. As though violent parents will check with the law library before they hurt their babies.
This is in stark contrast to the apathy over gangs, the leadership of which will be furious at the publicity and go underground as they always do when bad publicity rips the scab off the problem. This sore doesn't go away because it's crusted over.
However, worthwhile legislation to demand criminals explain where their money came from, which has languished in committees because there were other priorities, will now be brought forward.
Much, maybe most, of drug sales, prostitution, and probably counterfeiting, is done by gangs. Their management pyramid is based on a perverse reversal of normal community standards and sanctions. To get promoted, you must commit offences, rape, beat, steal and sell illegal substances.
Prison is not a threat, it's a necessary step in promotion. Prisons are "recruitment and training colleges" which reinforce gang discipline and control.
Civilised society functions on public, social censorship, on a clear understanding of what's right and wrong. Gangs operate on an extended family system based on perverted and sick values that are self-reinforcing.
Re-reading my book which covered the subject a decade ago, I recalled that none of our social agencies such as Social Welfare, Labour, Immigration, or Commerce even noted gang applications. Perhaps that's changed.
I suggested at the time that we have a National Crimes Authority, drawing on overseas models.
We need an anti-gang czar to head the authority that brings together the Police, Customs, Immigration, Corrections, Labour, all welfare agencies, even the Security Intelligence Service, to keep track of these villains.
We need someone who, every morning, thinks, "What are those bastards up to and how do we hammer them?" Every time a gang member travels overseas, starts a business, registers a car, applies for a benefit, we need to know.
I was accused of intimidation - damn right. Gangs should be "outlaw" organisations if they choose to live outside the law. They should not expect the law or our agencies to protect, let alone support them. When they go overseas, they should be hounded, overseas authorities warned, even stopped from travel.
The taxman sits in some clean, flash businesses for months checking on tax. How many raid a gang house?
"Zero tolerance" means what it says. Why not double the time and sentences for gang members convicted of offences? That would strike at the heart of their recruitment strategies and the intimidating values of being staunch and proud.
Their lawyers would then try to make the case that their clients weren't gang members. No longer would gangs congregate around courts showing solidarity with their cohorts.
Perhaps we would no longer see villains giving an arrogant fingers to cameras on the way to prison. They are banned from some marae and pubs, why not altogether? Let's try.
* Mike Moore is a former Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand.
