Nats aim at gangs the way Aussies do
Non-consorting laws are one of the Nats’ key ideas to disrupt gangs from the inside out, with leader Christopher Luxon set to unveil the party’s gang policy at the Northern Regional Conference in Auckland today.
Newstalk ZB reports a major element of National’s policy, should it gain power, takes a page from Australia’s law books.
The Consorting Prohibition Orders will allow police to issue prohibition notices to known gang offenders to stop them associating with one another and hinder their ability to commit a serious offence.
Once issued, the specified gang offenders would be banned from associating or communicating with one another for up to three years.
A known offender included any gang member subject to a firearms prohibition order; convicted of a category three or four serious offence; convicted of a child sex offence; or any equivalent overseas.
When a gang member could prove they had left a gang and were no longer considered at risk of committing a serious offence, they could apply to the Police Commissioner to have the notice withdrawn.
“It has to be a gang member, they have to have a prior conviction for serious offending, then they’ll go on the list and can’t have anything to do with anyone else on that list for three years,” said National’s police spokesperson Mark Mitchell.
Serious crime constituted any offence with a sentence of more than two years.
“It means these gang members who are talking with each other, and planning crime and violence, it’s going to make it very hard for them to continue to do that.”
When asked if the policy would encourage gangs to use younger prospects to do their dirty work, Mitchell said they did anyway.
“We looked all around the world to see what other countries and jurisdictions were doing and obviously Western Australia was experiencing the same sorts of problems we are having with drive-by shootings, lots of gang violence with firearms, intimidation and assaults on the public.
“Although anti-consorting legislation is relatively new for them, it appears to be working,” he said.