No more government money for gangs
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What government funding is currently provided to gang-linked groups?
The government is providing almost $3 million to a drug rehab programme with close links to the mongrel mob. Jacinda seems to trust me. Why wouldn't you?
That was 2021. Today, Jacinda Ardern is gone, Labour is no longer in power and the gangs, well, chances are they won't get their hands on any more government money because no, National doesn't trust them.
Now, if you don't love the gangs and you don't love the idea of government money going to gangs, you might well love this one. A National Party MP's member's bill to ban Crown agencies from funding gangs and anybody associated with gangs has been drawn from the biscuit tin.
Hi, I'm Amanda Gillies, and today on The Detail, I talk to that National MP who is taking aim at Kiwi gangs. Rima Nakhle has been blunt. She doesn't want a cent of taxpayers' money to prop up any group connected to criminal networks.
If I had a child, God forbid, or a family member addicted to meth, and then I find out the people that sold them the meth are getting money to take them off meth, I honestly want to cry. We can't send that message.
But critics argue it's less political progress, more political grandstanding.
It's a great opt-in, particularly in the lead-up to the election later in the year. And you can understand, given National's general position on gangs, that this is just kind of a natural extension of that punitive get-tough approach. But I think it's extremely short-sighted.
We'll hear why later in the podcast, but first, Rima and her new anti-gang mission.
The full name of it is the Public Finance Prohibition on Providing Public Funds to Gangs Amendment Bill. And essentially what this is aiming to do is to amend the Public Finance Act so that we don't allow the Crown or their agencies to to provide funds directly or indirectly to gangs, basically. And has that been a problem? What's sort of prompted this?
What is the National MP's proposal regarding gang funding?
It has, and, you know, I don't usually like to use the word loophole, but I will use it in this situation because there's been examples where public funds, and so that's the pool of money that is available for New Zealanders, have been given in a form of a fund or a grant specifically to different organisations that have some affiliations or are affiliated directly to gangs. The last time we saw that happening glaringly was in 2021 under the former Labor government. And rightfully so, a lot of people got very upset about that. $2.75 million was given through a government agency to a program administered by the mongrel mob.
Now this was to be run by Hard to Reach, a consultancy that was founded by mongrel mob honorary life member Harry Tam. And mob members in Hawke's Bay would be key leaders of the programme. And the goal of it was to reduce crime and harm from methamphetamine dependency, especially amongst gang members which other rehab programmes had found especially hard to engage. Why can they give the mongrel mob $2.7 million and not blink an eye? They don't want to know about us when we have problems in the South Island like the flooding and that. What did they get down there? Peanuts?
So the Honourable Simeon Brown, when he was still a member of Parliament, not a minister, put together this members' bill because he thought enough is enough. And I inherited it when he became a minister. And I thought, yep, this resonates with me a lot. And so it's in my name I'm shepherding this bill.
What is your issue with it? Is it because it is gang members or you feel like they've already got victims and it's re-victimising people? What makes you so angry about this?
I'm mindful that you use the word angry. And for some reason or many reasons, it does make me very angry. And if I really sift it to its core, there's a couple of reduced sifting reasons. And one of them is victims for me are really always at the forefront of my mind and i think to myself gangs they are the reason why most of our drugs in our new zealand communities are on our shores they're the ones that are bringing them in to a great extent and they're the ones that are selling them and to say that the sellers are going to become the saviors it's just
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What government funding is currently provided to gang-linked groups?
0:08–2:19
2
What is the National MP's proposal regarding gang funding?
2:19–8:43
3
What are the arguments against cutting funding to gang-related organizations?
8:43–12:19
4
How does the proposed bill aim to change public funding policies?
12:19–16:43
5
What criticisms have been made about the effectiveness of past funding?
16:43–21:53