National aims to permanently rule out a repeat of Labour-era gang-linked funding models

Summarised by Centrist

National MP Rima Nakhle says her member’s Bill is meant to shut the door on any repeat of the Labour-era model that allowed public money to flow to gang-linked rehabilitation efforts such as Kahukura. 

Nakhle’s line is that “the people administering the poison are not going to be administering the antidote as well”. 

Nakhle said she was not “100 percent clear”, whether any such funding is happening under the current coalition government. National could not later give a definitive yes or no. 

One initiative, Kahukura received $2.75 million in 2021 and was developed by a consultancy founded by Mongrel Mob life member Harry Tam. 

Then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern personally signed off on the funding. 

Gang members took key roles in the programme aimed at reducing meth harm. 

Criminologist Trevor Bradley called the Bill “a great optic, particularly in the lead up to the election later in the year” and warned it was “extremely short-sighted”. 

He argued that if New Zealand wants to reduce meth consumption, “we therefore have to work with the gangs and their gang membership and the associates, and the families and whānau”. 

Editor’s note: A 2021 Hawke’s Bay Today report said none of the Kahukura pilot participants were tested for meth before the programme began, meaning there was no baseline proof of active meth use when the pilot’s “success” was later cited to justify funding.

Read more over at RNZ

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