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Dear Ben,

I am writing on behalf of the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern, to acknowledge your email of 28 October 2021. Please be assured your comments have been noted.

As the issue you have raised falls within the portfolio responsibilities of the Minister of Police , Hon Poto Williams , your email has been forwarded to the Minister's office for consideration.

Thank you for writing, and take care.

Best wishes

Warren Howe
Office of the Prime Minister

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Dear Ben

 

Thank you for your correspondence of 28 October 2021 to the Prime
Minister, Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern. You are concerned about a number of
interactions the government has had with gangs in the past few months.

 

This office is not able to treat your correspondence as an Official
Information Act request, as your request is asking for information that
the government does not and could not credibly hold. I will however
respond to your correspondence.

 

You should not take the fact that the Minister's and government meet or
interacts with any particular group as an endorsement by the government
of that group. One of the obligations of government in a well-functioning
democracy is to meet with groups that you may not agree with. Many gang
members are outside of the normal parts of our community and do not
respond to traditional methods to interact with them. It would be
negligent of a government not to explore methods to reach them, have them
participate in society, particularly in a time of a global pandemic.
Government will often use leaders of a group to help get assistance or
information to them, recent examples of this include meeting with Muslim
Imams after the Christchurch and New Lynn attacks, leaders from the
disability community, farmers, and there are regular meetings with leaders
from the business community. It would be too much to expect that the all
these groups would agree on everything nor should they but part of the
function of government is to hear views from different parts of society.

 

You should also not interpret these meetings as any kind of sign that the
government is soft on gangs. Police currently has a very large operation
targeting gangs underway, Operation Tauwhiro. Operation Tauwhiro has been
running for the past eight months and has hit the gangs hard, to date
there have been 940 arrests, over $5million seized, over 1200 searches and
over 32kg of meth taken off the streets. Just over a week ago Police
terminated Operation Chestnut, a 10 month operation targeting gang drug
dealing and money laundering, arresting seven and restraining assets worth
$3.5million in the process. Not the actions of someone who is bowing to a
group that has a hold over them.  

 

Ngā mihi

 

 

Jason Smith

 

Private Secretary - Police | Office of Hon Poto Williams

 

Minister for Building and Construction | Minister of Police Associate
Minister for Children | Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing)

 

Website: [1]www.Beehive,govt.nz Private Bag 18041, Parliament Buildings,
Wellington 6160, New Zealand

 

Authorised by Hon Poto Williams, Parliament Buildings, Wellington

 

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