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Stuart Nash has hit out at his former Labour colleagues over changes to laws targeting gangs he wanted to introduce, but which others wouldn\u2019t progress due to fears they would unfairly target M\u0101ori.

Last year the Labour government changed the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act to allow police to seize gang leaders\u2019 property, such as cars and bikes, if valued over $30,000 and if it could not be proven they were paid for legitimately.\xa0

But then-police minister Nash wanted the threshold lowered to $0 - a plan\xa0he says was dashed by Labour\u2019s Minister of Justice Kiri Allan\xa0over concerns it would hurt M\u0101ori and would contravene the Bill of Rights.\xa0

Speaking to Newstalk ZB\u2019s Mike Hosking this morning, Nash hit out again at Allan, saying at the time his view was \u201cpull your bloody head in\u201d.\xa0

He strongly denied that such a move was aimed at or would hurt M\u0101ori, saying police were \u201crace-agnostic\u201d when it came to dealing with gangs.\xa0

Nash told Hosking this morning the conversation was not held in Cabinet - which would make it confidential - but was a conversation he had as soon as he became Police Minister.\xa0

He believed $30,000 was too high a threshold because \u201cyou can engineer a sale where you can buy a Harley for under $30,000\u201d.\xa0

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.\xa0

\u201cHe said, \u2018Well, 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 \u2018No, we need to leave it at $30,000.\u2019\u201d\xa0

Nash then asked to take the issue to Cabinet.\xa0

\u201cAnd she said \u2018No, this is what it\u2019s going to be.\u2019 She obviously went to Hipkins and Hipkins said, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re going to leave it at $30,000\u2032. Why? Because it\u2019s anti-M\u0101ori. Bulls***.\u201d\xa0

Former Justice Minister Kiri Allan dismissed Stuart Nash's desire to crackdown on gangs, Nash says. Photo / Mark Mitchell\xa0

Nash claimed police were \u201crace-agnostic\u201d when it came to gangs.\xa0

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if they\u2019re M\u0101ori, European, Chinese, Indian, what ethnicity - a gang member is a gang member is a gang member and they need to be held to account.\u201d\xa0

Nash said the harm gangs perpetrated across communities, including destroying communities through methamphetamine, meant \u201cwe need to go really hard\u201d on them.\xa0

\u201cI think the men and women in our [police] service do an absolutely brilliant job. But we, as politicians, have got to give them the tools to do this.\u201d\xa0

Asked by Hosking if it was fair to say the incident showed a strong M\u0101ori caucus in Labour who were protecting \u201cM\u0101ori behaviour and M\u0101ori issues\u201d, Nash said that was not a fair statement.\xa0

He believed Kelvin Davis - who is M\u0101ori - would have backed him if the issue had been taken to Cabinet.\xa0

Asked if the spat showed Hipkins was a weak leader, Nash said he believed \u201cin this case, he got it wrong\u201d.\xa0

\u201cI think he misjudged New Zealanders\u2019 appetite to really go incredibly hard against the gangs.\u201d\xa0

Labour had done some good things - \u201cwe changed the firearms rules, actually the\xa0bikes that were crushed over the weekend\xa0were crushed under Labour legislation...but we need to go harder\u201d.\xa0

Nash said Labour would need to position itself as tough on gangs if it had any hope of winning the next election.\xa0

Allan said she did not want to comment on Nash\u2019s version of events.\xa0

\u201cLet me put it this way. I wouldn\u2019t waste my time or energy responding to a person seeking relevance and attention by misrepresenting facts. If this is how he wants to get into the media, all power to him.\u201d\xa0

-NZ Herald

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