Nash on why Labour was soft on gangs

NewstalkZB reports:

Nash – who took over as Police Minister from Chris Hipkins when the latter became Prime Minister – said the first thing he did in the role was talk to Hipkins about dropping the seizure limit to $0. 

“He said, ‘Well, see if you can get it past Kiri [Allan]. And I went to Kiri and said this is what I want to do. And she said ‘No, we need to leave it at $30,000.’” 

Nash then asked to take the issue to Cabinet. 

“And she said ‘No, this is what it’s going to be.’ She obviously went to Hipkins and Hipkins said, ‘Okay, we’re going to leave it at $30,000′. Why? Because it’s anti-Māori. Bulls***.” 

Nash claimed police were “race-agnostic” when it came to gangs. 

“It doesn’t matter if they’re Māori, European, Chinese, Indian, what ethnicity – a gang member is a gang member is a gang member and they need to be held to account.” 

Nash said the harm gangs perpetrated across communities, including destroying communities through methamphetamine, meant “we need to go really hard” on them. 

I would have thought being anti-gang was being pro-Maori considering the huge harms to many Maori caused by gangs.