MEDIAWATCH: Where is Taxpayers Union criticism of National giving Mongrel Mob money?

1. Hopelessly irrelevant – that is why this ain’t gaining traction Bomber.

   Meanwhile another armed carjacking in South Auckland. I thought the gun laws and buy back was supposed to reduce guns from circulation?

   • Thank you for listing your corporate media profile.

     • Corporate Media. Yeah Nah. Very far removed from the feckless ones to the point I don’t believe a word they say.

       Keep trying. Never give up champ.

   • National, whilst desperately trying to regain some of the middle ground with its calling out the government’s funding of a programme linked to a gang, have once again shot themselves in the foot and probably driven more of their supporters to ACT.
     Why do people keep claiming the gun laws were going to magically stop gun violence; they were the first step in what will be a long journey to stop us becoming a replica of gun toting America. There is absolutely no need for private citizens to own military style weapons; anyone now found with one of these weapons obviously has it for criminal purposes and hopefully the courts will deal with them appropiately – will ACT support strong law and order measures being applied to such offenders?

     • They weren’t the first step in a long journey to make a safer community. The recent law changes were blindly charging off in the wrong direction (despite ample warnings from real experts) to distract attention from Police failures to properly administer New Zealand’s existing world class firearms laws, failures that resulted in over 50 death from a terrorist armed by the Police themselves.

       The new legislation has not made New Zealand safer, that doesn’t even appear to be even it’s intention, instead the Buyback transferred over 100000 banned firearms to the black & grey markets and if the Government pushes ahead with the Firearms Register, this will result in the “disappearance” of even more firearms as people protect their property from the inevitable confiscations that follow registration. The changes to New Zealand’s firearm laws were the equivalence of burning down owner occupied houses to fix the housing crisis, you can be seen to be doing something but it definitely isn’t making things better.

       Guns are not the problem, only a tool.
       Gangs are not the problem, only a symptom.
       Drugs are not the problem, only peoples attempt at escape.
       The problem is the increasing poverty & inequality brought on by current neoliberal agenda. These issues blight our society and forces those struggling to survive to turn to crime to make ends meet or drugs to escape the reality they are trapped in.

       The drive to disarm civilians across the world is not in your interests, it is not for your protection, it is not for your safety. Do not sacrifice others rights for your perceived safety, as there is a good chance that the rights you give away are your own. Civilian firearms ownership is a barometer by which you can determine how much your Government trusts its citizens, when a Government no longer trusts its’ citizens, the citizens can no longer trust their Government for it is likely the Government no longer acts in its’ citizens interests.

       • Spoken like a ‘real expert’.

         • Certainly better than Gun Control NZ with only 23 paid up members in the last year but still claiming to speak for 80% of the New Zealand population, with “experts” like Hera “I don’t think we are going to achieve a great deal talking about facts” Cook.

   • Nash said it was a success, so it must have been. We are safer now those evil guns have been taken off the streets.

     https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/05/two-questions-remain-unanswered-following-gun-buyback-scheme-report.amp.html

   • The issue of ‘giving’ money to gangs and where it comes from is irrelevant so the Taxpayers’ Union took out a half page Herald ad about it. Just a minute, I need to think about that.

     • Exactly, so what was the purpose of the ad and how much taxpayer’s money was used?

   • Only gun owners with a reason to have a gun (aka farmers, pest controllers) should be allowed to have guns. The new woke gun laws have failed because it is encouraging unregistered weapons in greater numbers as apparently having a gun license now means that police can enter and search your home without a warrant. Well of course a law like that is going to ensure more unregistered guns and owner instead of correcting what really was wrong, which was for what ever reason they did not check Tarrents references property, police did not respond to complaints about his behaviour, NZ allowed overseas residents into NZ without checks who could be radicalised, and NZ allowed automatic weapons.

     So the power grab relating to the gun licenses is not designed for safety, (apart from removing automatic weapons) the new gun rules are making NZ less safe by giving advantages to not registering guns and their inability to check overseas residents and ways the guns are smuggled into NZ or provide a better police service. Police are too busy going after people they don’t like, aka Rachel Steward while giving mobsters millions in proceeds of crime money.

   • It has, but that doesn’t stop the illegal importation of weapons.. Which has been the source since I was a young bloke in the know regarding such activities… Different year, same shit..

   • “Hopelessly irrelevant”.. To what? The running of daycare centers? Entirely relevant to those struggling to get away from the self destruction the drug creates.. Or is that irrelevant?

     • I’ll add some context for you Stef. It is hopelessly irrelevant to compare a 30,000 payment with no ministerial oversight that occurred under another government at another time with 2.75m of funds signed off by 3 current ministers including the PM during a period where gang-related crime and violence is soaring.

       Your mob is soft on crime. Shit sticks and will remain so for the duration of the term. Get over it.

2. Yes, National spent $30,000 of taxpayers money on the Mongrel mob and Labour spent $2.75 million on the Mongrel mob from funds from the proceeds of crime. This money is being used for meth rehabilitation. It is a good thing, as successive National governments under John Key cut or reduced funding to some of these programs.

   To me, either payment is not a big deal. The amount from National was relatively low at $30,000 and they felt hamstrung at that point, unsure about whether to use money from the proceeds of crime that the authorities had available to use. Labour did use money from that fund, which is not a big deal either, as they have discretionary powers available for them to use and the Mongrel Mob has been waiting a long time for funds to assist with meth rehabilitation for their members.

   The government of the day has the responsibility of and obligation to allocate funds where suitable. This includes health, education, housing, the environment, unemployment, etc. It includes the health of gang members, as health funding is classed as a human right in New Zealand, and that includes all people. As the money was not taxpayers money and instead cake from the appropriate fund, it is therefore not an issue.

   Back in the 2000’s, drug production and drug taking escalated in New Zealand. By 2006, you could source any drug you wanted in Christchurch. This was the opposite scenario to 2000, a mere six years earlier. By 2009, meth was becoming a problem for at least a few members in most major cities.
   Some of the meth production came from gangs; a lot of it did not. Some New Zealanders saw it as a business opportunity, citizens who’d never been involved in drugs before in their lives, creating start-up operations from their home kitchens.

   Now, in 2021, the Labour government have allocated $2.74million of funds from an appropriate fund, not taxpayers funds, for a meth rehabilitation program run by the Mongrel Mob. Some of these people running the program could be the same people who wanted this type of funding for their members twelve years ago.

   It really is not a big deal. I personally wouldn’t authorise the spending if it were up to me, the organization running the program makes the funding for the program a contentious issue in the eyes of most New Zealanders, but I also do appreciate the perspectives of both the Labour government and the Mongrel Mob.

   • Very good reasoning of which could also be used to decriminalise marijuana. Tax take from sales could then fund rehabilitation programmes for all drug use rather than continually chasing the tail.

   • Seems like we have been funding meth addiction in the gangs since 2009, when National signed off on an eight year programme with the Salvation Army to treat meth addiction among the Mongrel Mob’s Notorious Chapter. It was the Salvation Army who received the funds.

     In a parallel to the current Labour and Hard2Reach scheme, John Key announced in 2016 that a meth treatment programme would be funded from Proceeds of Crime and would target addiction among Black Power members. While Key claimed that the funds would be managed by the Salvation Army, when it was signed off in 2017, with Bill English now PM, the Sallies were not part of the contract and the funds went to CART. Lifetime member of the Black Power, Denis O’Reilly, was on the trust board of CART. The programme was terminated in 2019 from a lack of accountability and delivery.

     Now, instead of National, CART, Denis O’Reilly and Black Power, we have Labour, Hard2Reach, Harry Tam and the Mongrel Mob involved in a meth addiction programme funded from crime proceeds. A similar scheme, but the outrage is very different.

     • DX5 I was going to attempt to comment in a similar way mentioning the Sallies distributed the funds way back then but you did a way better job clarifying the situation than I would have. I live in CHB where this is happening and I assure everybody here that very few, including the police in CHB are happy with this so called rehabilitation program. For it to work the way the program is administered and funds spent is the key, and I don’t trust the mongrel mob or this Government to do it properly.

       • So if the police aren’t happy have they suggested an alternative?
         Bigger prisons?

3. The worse gun incident and tragedy in our country was committed by one Australian who was recklessly issued guns by our very own NZ Police who failed to do the correct checks.

   • Yes the Police failed to do their job correctly, but you are missing the point – those guns were available to him across-the-counter; now he would have had to acquire them illegally.

     • No you are missing the point, Tarrent applied for a police license with automatic weapons and the police allowed him the license because they were incompetent or whatever to check his references and also missed an opportunity when the gun club reported his behaviour.

       Encouraging terrorists/criminals in NZ to acquire the guns legally gives the police a chance to actually ‘check’ the mentality of the applicants, first.

       Now it seems many gun users don’t bother to get their guns licensed, so that takes away an opportunity for the police to get a forward idea of a gun owner who may need further checks. The first police seem to hear about it now, is when the guns are being discharged in shootings!

       Also terror attacks are not just about guns. Around the world people are attacking with knives, vehicles, acid and fire. The point should be to try and keep terrorists and terror behaviour from forming in NZ not thinking that it’s about the weapons alone.

4. The worse gun incident and tragedy in our country was committed by one Australian who was recklessly issued guns by our very own NZ Police who failed to do the correct checks.

5. The worse gun incident and tragedy in our country was committed by one Australian who was recklessly issued guns by our very own NZ Police who failed to do the correct checks.

6. The worse gun incident and tragedy in our country was committed by one Australian who was recklessly issued guns by our very own NZ Police who failed to do the correct checks.

7. The Taxpayer’s union is akin to benefit fraud.

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