Public Finance (Prohibition on Providing Public Funds to Gangs) Amendment Bill

A link to the Bill can be found here: https://www.parliament.nz/media/8421/public-finance-prohibition-on-providing-public-funds-to-gangs-amendment-bill.pdf

B.1098-A and B.1098-B have been approved by the House.

B.1098-A

Section 4 is amended to read as follows:

(1) Except as expressly authorised by any Act, the Crown must not pay money (directly) to a gang.

(2) The Crown must take all reasonable precautions, and exercise due diligence, to avoid acting contrary to subsection (1).

(3) In this section, gang has the meaning given in section 4 of the Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Act 2013.

B.1098-B

For “reasonable excuse” substitute “reasonable excuse, a reasonable fear for ones life, the life of others, serious bodily harm to the individual or others”

Insert after (ba);

“(bc) for a defence of reasonable excuse is to be available to an individual, the individual must have in as short a time as is safe and practicable after having made a payment knowingly to a gang, contact the police.”

Explanatory note

This Bill would prohibit the Crown and its agencies from providing funds directly and indirectly to organisations that are run, administered or associated to gangs. The need for this Bill arises out of a concern that public funds could directly or indirectly end up in the hands of gangs by way of entities that are run by, or associated with, gangs being able to legitimately access funds through the Proceeds of Crime Fund. The law does not prohibit currently an organisation that is run, administered or associated with a gang from receiving funds from the Crown. The decision to grant funds to an organisation that has the involvement of a gang or gangs is unconscionable, the absence of a prohibition in the law on this matter has meant funding can be given to gangs to run programmes through organisations.

The Bill will require the Crown to take all reasonable precautions and will require the Crown to undertake due diligence to ensure public funds do not end up in the hands of gangs. By making it an offence to make funds available to gangs, without a reasonable excuse, the Bill will achieve the policy intent of ensuring the flow of public funds does not end up in the hands of gangs.

B.1098 - Public Finance (Prohibition on Providing Public Funds to Gangs) Amendment Bill

Party Bill

Sourced from Simeon Brown MP (Parliament)

Sponsored by the New Zealand National Party.

Debate will end at 11:59pm, 11th of September.