McClay Todd; Tolley AnneHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): This is a good piece of legislation. Drugs do harm all over New Zealand and I challenge anybody to say that we don't need robust protection at our borders to give the tools that our customs officials and others need to be able to police our borders and to catch people that want to bring drugs into New Zealand and to hold them to account. In many cases that will mean very long prison sentences at great cost to the taxpayer but that is a burden the taxpayer must take on to make sure that New Zealanders are safe. We have quite a challenge on this side of the Chamber today. We are going to support this legislation but the challenge is that on the one hand the Acting Minister of Customs Kris Faafoi has come to the committee and said We want the best rules we can have to hold people to account on drugs." yet in question time in the House we've had repeated Ministers stand up and give a very different view to the public of whether or not this Government takes drugs and the harm they do seriously. We've had the Minister of Housing and Urban Development say it's OK for people to use methamphetamine or cook methamphetamine in houses. It is illegal. It is illegal and he said it's OK. Then we had the Minister of Health who said people shouldn't be held to account when they are peddling synthetic drugs that have killed 45 people in New Zealand over the last year—45 people. He said "Actually the penalties don't work. It's only a health issue." Yet we have this Minister come to the committee now and say we need to strengthen legislation in this bill to give greater tools to our customs officials and others so they can go and police our borders so drugs don't get in here. So I ask the Minister to take another call and to explain clearly to the public exactly what the position of the Labour-led Government is when it comes to drugs.The Opposition is supporting this legislation because it is important that actually we have those tools. We should do everything that we can to stop drugs like methamphetamine P synthetics and everything else coming in and harming New Zealanders. There is no place in this country for the harm that drugs do. But he must also explain to the committee why other Ministers when it comes to policies that are involved with drugs are giving a very different signal than the Minister is. I think there is a very clear reason why and the public can see it.You see my colleague beside me has just said that this bill has been around for a while. It wasn't introduced by the Labour-led Government just a year ago; it was brought in by the previous Government the National-led Government to make sure we could protect our borders. So since the election this Minister and his Government have used this piece of legislation to talk up how tough they are on drugs at the border but when it comes to the things that they've had to do over the last year they've done nothing but undermine the system make it more difficult for the police and say to New Zealanders "It's OK. We'll look after you. We'll treat it as a health issue. Do what you want in Housing New Zealand houses. Actually we've set up a committee and over the next period of time we'll get a bit of advice and we'll have a look at whether we reschedule a few synthetic drugs that are harming New Zealanders. We'll get there eventually. Forget the 45 people that have lost their lives this year." That is frankly not good enough. Now we will be supporting this legislation but here is the challenge that Andrew Little has as a Minister in this Government in the coming days weeks and months of this Labour-led Government. He's soft on crime. His colleagues are soft on crime. The only thing he's done since taking up the position as Minister of Justice is to help his colleagues spend $2700 per person on a summit that didn't actually achieve anything but have the people that attended it say "It was a talkfest." Now he puts his head down. This is a good piece of legislation brought to this House by the previous National Government. Everything else they're doing on drugs is a disgrace.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Now I just want to make it clear that we are discussing the bill as a whole and so that means it is a broader debate—but that does not mean that it is a broad debate around drugs and it is not a general debate. So keep the focus on the bill in front of the House which is the Maritime Powers Extension Bill. I will be somewhat lenient because it is about drugs but I don't think that we should be debating the use of drugs and I will stop people who continue that. Hon Todd McClay: Do you want me to do my speech again?CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Ha ha! Are you seeking the call?"