National's police spokesperson Mark Mitchell has clashed with whānau of gang members at Parliament who are opposed to his party's gang policies.
The group delivered a petition calling for gangs to have a say in policies which affected them.
Mitchell listened to the group present their petition, then he hit back – rejecting it.
"I thank you for your statement but what I'd say to you is this: I don't believe for one minute that your identity of whānau needs to be linked to gangs."
Mitchell said gangs are responsible for some of the country's worst violence.
"Gangs are organised criminal groups."
He said to members of the group "if either of you want to leave" a gang then he would "stand by them" and help them do that.
"But while you continue to choose to be in a gang, while you choose to be a part of..." Mitchell said before one of the men said, "I'm not in a gang".
"That's your assumption, I was never in a gang, but good assumption though, you're stereotyping me. I support my whānau here," the man said.
They asked Mitchell to "backpedal and apologise" for assuming one of the people present was a gang member when he said he wasn't.
"I'm not going to apologise to you. If you have left a gang then good on you," Mitchell said, but the man replied saying he was never in a gang.
"You're standing on the steps of Parliament as part of a gang hīkoi, protesting our policies," Mitchell said.
"So if you're telling me you're not a member of a gang, good on you. I applaud you, but I'm not going to apologise to you."
As Mitchell continued his speech to the whānau one of them said he hadn't listened to anything that she'd said.
"We are not in a gang Mark, we are a family, we're a whānau, we are a community within ourselves."
One of the supporters said, "we're not voting for yous (National) anyway".
"I know you're not voting for me, you're voting for Labour, that's very apparent."
Mitchell refused to accept their petition and told the whānau of gang members he's listened to their message, and someone will accept their petition.
"There should be a Labour or Greens member here to accept this, is there someone here who's actually going to accept the petition? take the petition?"
One of the members said Mitchell's party policies against gangs "aren't even aimed at crime they're aimed at people".
As the group began to chant "they're not listening, they're our whānau" Mitchell removed himself and walked back into Parliament.
Watch the full video above for more.
