The Wanganui gang patch ban

The Dom Post reports:

Former Whanganui mayor Michael Laws is refusing to accept a High Court ruling that the council’s controversial gang-patch ban is unlawful and invalid.

The decision, issued by Justice Denis Clifford yesterday, will send Whanganui District Council back to the drawing board to create a bylaw that does not effectively ban gang insignia.

But Mr Laws, who spearheaded the bylaw and is now a councillor, said the judge was “wrong in fact”.

The High Court found in favour of Auckland Hells Angels gang member Philip Schubert, who argued that the council had exceeded the powers granted to it by Parliament when it passed the Prohibition of Gang Insignia Bylaw in September 2009.

Parliament had allowed the council to ban gang insignia in specified, but not all, public places. Because the bylaw banned gang insignia throughout the wider Whanganui urban area, it had effectively removed them from the district and was therefore unlawful, Justice Clifford ruled. He also said the Whanganui council failed to fully take into account rights regarding freedom of expression.

I din’t think this is that big a setback to those who want the patch ban. Basically the court has just said you can’t ban them in the entire urban area of Whanganui.  The Council really just needs to come back with a bylaw which bans them in specific places – those places might comprise 90% of the urban area of Whanganui.

Of cours ethe composition of the Council has changed, and it is possible that a majority on the Council no longer support a patch ban – off memory the new Mayor doesn’t.