Shane Jones says he would have liked to drop a nuke on a Whangarei recreation centre which held a gang boxing event at the weekend.
Rival gangs gathered at the Portland Recreation Centre for the Te Tai Tokerau Fight Night on Saturday, aimed at ending inter-gang violence. While police said there were not significant problems, four people were arrested - two for breach of bail, one for breach of community work and one for drug possession.
Mr Jones, New Zealand First candidate for Whangarei, told The AM Show on Monday morning the event should never have been allowed to go ahead.
"We don't want this kind of criminal tourism taking place in Whangarei. As far as I'm concerned, the logic is perverse - okay, let's get the gangs together in a boxing ring so they don't kill each other because we had four deaths in the north. But let's keep selling P, peddling P, and kill the rest of the community. It's creepy.
"If I had my way I would have got one of those nukes from North Korea and got rid of them all in one go."
Mr Jones says New Zealand First will update the Boxing and Wrestling Act 1981 so police will have veto power over such events.
"That event will not be taking place after the next election unless the cops agree."
He also alleges "ambidextrous criminals" from Australia's Hell's Angels gang came over for the fight, keen to recruit new members and expand their reach.
"They're not coming to Portland, Whangarei for some sort of innocuous amateur boxing event, where a bunch of tribal members are jumping around like Mike Tyson in their 60s - no, no, no, it's got to stop."
Labour MP Kelvin Davis said he'd back the event if gangs stopped dealing in methamphetamine.
"As long as these guys are staying with their brethren who are profiting from meth and all the sordid nasty stuff that goes with it then they don't really have a lot of credibility," he told Fairfax.
Gangs present at the event included the Head Hunters, Mongrel Mob and Black Power.
A non-scientific poll hosted by The AM Show, at the time of writing, had 70 percent opposed to the event, and 30 percent in favour.
Newshub.
