Politics foil patch ban hope

Fifteen councils around NZ are understood to be wanting a Wanganui-type patch ban. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Cities keen to emulate Wanganui's anti-gang patch law are not having their job made easier by the Government.

Wairarapa is the latest region investigating following Wanganui's lead in banning gang insignia, with Masterton Mayor Garry Daniell having met police area commander Inspector John Johnston to discuss the issue.

However, any region wanting to copy Wanganui will need a private member's bill passed through Parliament as Local Government Minister Rodney Hide does not intend fast-tracking national legislation.

It is understood 15 councils - including Kapiti Coast, Hastings, Palmerston North, Whakatane and Timaru - have enquired about changes to the Local Government Amendment Bill, which would sidestep the Bill of Rights and allow a Wanganui-style law. But Hide wants to monitor the Wanganui situation before moving nationally.

In Masterton, police Senior Sergeant Warwick Burr said a ban was an option "mainly because there is always an undercurrent of gang activity in Wairarapa".

"It is not always highly visible, but at times it is and police are constantly working to try to keep on top of gang behaviour."

The aim of any bylaw was chiefly to stem the gangsters' power to intimidate.

"A gang patch ban isn't going to stop criminal behaviour by groups that are, in effect, gangs, but what it does do is stop the open intimidation, particularly on the average member of the public, as they are walking down the road doing their own thing," he said.

Over the past two years gangs had shown a greater presence in Masterton, with members and would-be members wearing caps and T-shirts bearing gang names.

Because youth gangs shunned patches in favour of streetwear, Burr said he hoped any Masterton bylaw wouldn't "just be a straight ban on patches but on colours and gang insignia".

However, proposals by Local Government New Zealand for blanket legislation, reproducing the Wanganui Prohibition of Gang Insignia Act and Bylaw 2009, has been rejected by Hide.

It would need Wairarapa MP John Hayes to promote a private member's bill and he had reservations.

"You can run away and bleat and ask for another nanny state rule, but fundamentally it's for our community to hang strong and make it clear to our young people we don't want gangs in our community," Hayes said.

The danger was that squeezing gangs out of Masterton could exacerbate the issue and risk gang-associated social problems spilling over to nearby communities - an effect he saw two years ago when police cracked down on Palmerston North gangs, who began causing problems in nearby Pahiatua.

"It's like pushing on a balloon - the air has to go somewhere," he said.