KEY POINTS:
Sharp differences of opinion emerged in Parliament yesterday about how gang violence should be tackled.
The Maori Party urged politicians and police to work with gang leaders, saying they were committed for the first time to ending violent rivalry.
New Zealand First demanded legislation to ban gangs, saying they were a cancer in society and talking to them legitimised their existence.
Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said gang leaders representing Black Power, the Mongrel Mob, King Cobras, Highway 61, Hell's Angels, Storm Troopers and others had met to discuss ending violence.
A spokeswoman for Dr Sharples said the meeting was held in Manurewa three weeks ago.
"This is an opportunity we cannot ignore," Dr Sharples told Parliament.
"A strategy to assist gangs to discard their violent activities is required by us. We have a real chance to make a difference."
Dr Sharples said banning gang patches would not work and neither would aggressive policing.
"For close to 40 years we have not been able to crack gang violence. Now gang leaders themselves, for the first time, want to eliminate it," he said.
"To me it is a major, major move forward that we can't afford to turn our backs on."
Dr Sharples said he condemned the "horrific event" in Wanganui that caused the death of a 2-year-old.
"I stand beside those calling for that Mongrel Mob chapter to give up the actual perpetrators to the police."
NZ First MP Ron Mark said successive governments had only touched the fringes of the problem.
"We still have this attitude, here in Parliament, of legitimising the existence of gangs by talking and negotiating with them about their perceived problems and difficulties that give cause to their being," he said.
"By doing such things we actually legitimise their existence and give credence to their right to exist in the form that they are."
Mr Mark said gangs existed for one purpose only - to commit crime and profit from it.
He said his party would back a ban on patches, increased penalties, the confiscation of money or assets, and any other measure that came to Parliament.
"But those pieces of legislation are peripheral to one core piece of legislation that we need to pass - that is legislation to ban their very existence."
Mr Mark said it had been achieved in Singapore and his party was proposing legislation along the same lines.
During question time Justice Minister Mark Burton was again grilled over what measures the Government was taking to deal with gang violence, and irritated MPs by again saying laws were being reviewed.
- NZPA
