“In my mind there is now only one solution left – turn the planes around and make a point to the Australian Government that New Zealand is not the dumping ground for your criminals. Australia should be used to that given what they did with the Tampa all those years ago. Turn the planes around” Tukaki said

The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has slammed the Australian Government and their policy of returning people known as 501’s for the increase in gang related violence in Auckland. Tukaki, who has long been involved in the area of returnees on both sides of the Tasman has said “if you blame the New Zealand Government for this, no matter if they have been National or Labour, you are on the wrong side of the page”

“Lets be really clear here – there have been concerns for the last several years that new gangs and chapters are getting a foothold in New Zealand because of the rising tide of returnees known as the 501’s. To be frank we saw it as far back as Waikeria and we are seeing now with an increase in gun related violence in Auckland. The latest shootings are an indictor of that” Tukaki said

“The truth is these violent thugs and criminals don’t care two hoots about the community, they don’t care about culture or tikanga they care solely about establishing their criminal enterprise – they have no or little attachment to New Zealand and many of them, while they may have been born here, have been raised in Australia – they are products of the Australian environment – and through that environment they have connections, they have links and they have supply chains” Tukaki said

“In turn we can potentially expect to see tension between these newly established gangs and existing ones that could see an ever greater increase in gun violence in Auckland – we could see gang land wars similar to those that occurred in both Sydney and Melbourne in the early 2000’s if we are not careful” Tukaki said

Tukaki said the flights of returnees took a break during the latest Delta outbreak but are increasing in number. Tukaki also weighed in to support the Police:

“The Police need the extra resources to increase their surveillance and intelligence but we need to go further we need to strengthen those links wherever possible with the Australian authorities. And to be frank while our border controls have been about keeping Delta out we need to increase resources and invest more to stop criminal enterprise coming across the border” Tukaki said

“The reality is when these people come back to New Zealand, some but not all, don’t give two hoots about the benefit or wrap around support – why would you when you can make twenty, thirty times that amount in a single drop through criminal activity?”

“In my mind there is now only one solution left – turn the planes around and make a point to the Australian Government that New Zealand is not the dumping ground for your criminals. Australia should be used to that given what they did with the Tampa all those years ago. Turn the planes around” Tukaki said

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