New measures for authorities to seize organised crime syndicate assets are being explored.
After a spate of alleged gang-related shootings, reported surge in gang membership and influx of 501 deportees, politicians are eager to voice anti-crime policies.
"The way that organised crime operates is changing and we have to change with it," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today.
She said the Government was looking at steps around asset seizures but the matter was complex and took time.
"We're not quite ready but what it's an indication of is that we're constantly scanning our horizon," Ardern said.
"But we should be in a position to talk about the outcome of that fairly soon."
In January, the Herald revealed the Government planned a law change to let police target organised crime figures who distanced themselves from criminal activity but allegedly still reaped the financial benefits.
Police have seized more than a billion dollars in alleged criminal assets including cars, property and cash since the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was passed in 2009.
Police Minister Poto Williams said Australia had better gun laws, compared with lax rules in New Zealand.
On other possible anti-gang measures, Williams said: "Whatever we come up with will be based on evidence."
She said it was important to get new laws right, rather than rushing and creating laws that would be too broad.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon said violent crime was increasingly problematic and new strategies to combat gangs had to be explored.
"What we're seeing now is an intensity and an aggression in criminality that we haven't seen before."
He added: "We really want to see firearm prohibition orders that have warrantless search powers so that police can go after illegal guns."
Luxon said a ban on gang gatherings could be explored but the party wanted to see evidence of whether such measures were effective.
Luxon said no dedicated gang unit existed.
Police already had the National Organised Crime Group, and the Government had the multi-agency Gang Intelligence Centre.
National's police spokesman Mark Mitchell said the two groups were good at gathering and sharing intelligence but a different specialist unit was needed.
"You actually need to have a physical presence that can go out and start targeting the gangs."
He said a specialist, full-time unit capable of travelling anywhere in New Zealand and responding to any type of gang crime was needed.
"The make-up of that is an operational decision. It would lie with police. But it would be substantive and it would have a national capability."
Mitchell said the country was experiencing almost daily drive-by shootings because the Government was soft on crime.
"Ultimately, gangs are a symptom of poverty. And National is soft on poverty," Green Party co-leader James Shaw said.
"National, every time they want to get elected to Government, bring out this 'tough on crime' macho view of the world," he added.
Shaw said that attitude had failed for decades.
On whether drug prohibition had failed too, Shaw said he wanted a more health-based approach to the issue.
He would not explicitly say whether the Greens would decriminalise methamphetamine.
But he added: "We do distinguish between hard drugs and soft drugs but ultimately, if you were to take an evidence-based approach, the approach we have had for the past 30 or 40 years has not worked."
"Our communities aren't safe anymore and there needs to be real change to how we tackle gangs," Act Party justice spokeswoman Nicole McKee said.
"The Prime Minister says she wants to tackle gang crime by allowing police to seize their assets when they're caught with guns, so why didn't she support my bill that would have achieved exactly that three weeks ago?"
McKee said under her bill, the threshold to seize assets would have been triggered if a gang member was found with an illegally held firearm.
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