Act says gun law too weak on gangs
AN INVERCARGILL woman is calling for Southland Boys’ High School to change one of its house colours after pupils were seen dressed in blackface and afro wigs at their sports day.
‘‘I was pulling into a park when I saw one of them and thought, ‘Oh my gosh’.
‘‘When I got out of the car, I saw about 20 of them painted black, some wearing those black clown wigs that look like afros,’’ the woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.
SBHS held its annual sports day event on Thursday, where hundreds of pupils dressed up in their house colours, including Pearce House, which is represented by the colour black.
SBHS board of trustees chair Jan Ormsby yesterday apologised on behalf of the school and said it had a ‘‘zero tolerance for racism’’.
‘‘We sincerely apologise for the harm or offence that has been caused by any students wearing blackfaces on sports day,’’ Ms Ormsby said.
‘‘It is not appropriate, and we consider it to be offensive.’’
The woman who complained wondered if the pupils understood the significance of their costume choice and how culturally insensitive it was.
‘‘It makes you think about what they’re teaching them, our country’s history?’’
She argued while pupils from other house groups also wore body paint, it was not the same as impersonating people of colour.
‘‘There’s a loaded history that comes with dressing like that [in blackface].’’
When she visited the school’s website yesterday, she was ‘‘pretty shocked’’ to find an image from a previous sports day, understood to be from about eight years ago.
Some were wearing flax skirts, while others held sticks and had leopardprint material wrapped around them.
Ms Ormsby said pupils painted their bodies and faces at every sports day.
However, it was 2021, and while the school had a ‘‘traditional heart’’, it was committed to adapting to ‘‘the modern world’’.
The school planned to work with its wider community on appropriate ways to ‘‘build the culture’’ of its houses and have discussions with its young men about racism.
Pupils involved in any ‘‘inappropriate behaviour’’ would be reprimanded and educated to understand the effects of their actions.
WELLINGTON: Act New Zealand is accusing the Government of failing to provide police with enough power to take firearms licences off gang members.
The number of people identified on the national gang list who hold a firearms licence sits at 12.
A law change in December gave police more power to revoke firearms licences on gang affiliation grounds.
Police commissioner Andrew Coster says the recent changes around gang affiliation and the fit and proper person test is of ``uncertain effect''.
``We think it is unlikely that gang membership by itself will be sufficient to remove somebody's licence but we intend to test it,'' he said.
Mr Coster said this issue was well traversed during the select committee stage, before the law change.
``It sits uncomfortably with us that gang members have access to firearms, but we also need to recognise that some of the people who have licences on that list have had them for decades and some of them have no convictions and these are difficult judgements to make,'' he said.
Act MP Nicole McKee said this was deeply disappointing.
``Especially when Government have stood up in the House and said the reason why they put through rushed legislation in the first place was to take firearms away from gangs,'' she said.
Ms McKee said it showed rushed legislation did not get the desired result of keeping the country safe, and she argued that being a gang member alone should be enough to have their licence revoked.
``If you are on that national gang list, you are on that list for a reason and we've got the New Zealand police saying the people on that list, who they have concerns about, are able to purchase firearms legally,'' she said.
Police Minister Poto Williams said it was simply too early to know how these provisions would be applied before being tested in court.
``They are a tool for police so that those on the national gang list can have their firearms licence removed if the police believe they are not a fit and proper person and associated with a gang,'' she said.
Ms Williams said these provisions were designed to keep New Zealanders safe, and National and Act had voted against them. — RNZ