Davidson ReubenREUBEN DAVIDSON (Labour—Christchurch East): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'd like to speak to the Misuse of Drugs (Pseudoephedrine) Amendment Bill. Twenty-five years since methamphetamine burst on to the scene in New Zealand I think you'd be hard-pushed to find someone who hasn't seen the devastation that it delivers. I was living in Auckland at the time and I saw it firsthand: the horrible toll it took and the horrible toll it continues to take to this day. It's doing huge damage to individuals to families and to communities—and it's damage that is irreversible in many cases. So we need to be certain that decisions we make don't exacerbate that and that requires really good political process and due diligence at select committee. We need to be careful about speeding things up.I've got an article here that I've been reading from the New Zealand Herald that talks about some of the risks associated with bringing pseudoephedrine products back into pharmacies. It says here and I quote Luxon said [that] the risk of pharmacies being targeted had been a matter discussed by Seymour and Police Minister Mark Mitchell to ensure the issue was monitored. Luxon's comments appeared to surprise Mitchell who said he and Seymour hadn't had any conversations about it but assumed the Prime Minister was referring to communication between Mitchell's office and Seymour's office. The Herald has confirmed no such communication occurred between the two offices and the only correspondence Luxon could be referring to was conversations held in Cabinet. Nevertheless Mitchell said he had received no advice from police expressing concern about the ban reversal and its potential to lead to a crime spike against pharmacies."—no advice—"He said pharmacies wouldn't receive financial aid for security once the ban had gone but accepted that could be revised if a problem arose."Hon Shane Jones: Irrelevant.REUBEN DAVIDSON: So I think it's critical to the conversation as opposed to irrelevant. I think our local pharmacies need to be looked after and protected and I think that taking this action without having the conversations with the appropriate representative agencies and organisations places them at greater risk.One of the members earlier said that some pharmacists can choose not to stock pseudoephedrine. Sure that's true. But do people find that out when they pop in to purchase some pseudoephedrine or do they find that out halfway through a ram raid when they've already done the damage to the store they've already smashed in the window and they do even more damage looking for the product that they're there to get? So these are just some of the risks—some of the risks.So in recognition of those I think it is crucial that the select committee process should have been able to examine the issues and hear from submitters. What we've heard instead is that it was a very rushed process. They missed the chance to hear valuable evidence and there was a very small number of pharmacy representatives involved in that conversation.The Government evidence about no increase in meth-related crime doesn't seem that enough investigation was carried out there. I think what we're looking at there is the provision for safe storage of pseudoephedrine within pharmacies and whether small businesses—and we know the importance of those small businesses like chemists and pharmacists in our communities and we saw through the pandemic how crucial those businesses became to the health and protection of our communities. So it's fine to say that those businesses don't get support but if they don't get support then they place themselves at greater risk by not being able to have pseudoephedrine in safe storage inside their premises. I think that's an unfair risk to place our small businesses in.I think there's also unanswered questions around how regulation will work under the Medicines Act and I think there's a missed opportunity of a register for pharmacists. The bigger question is what this Government has planned to address meth addiction in our communities. So my plea would be: take the time to get it right to ensure the benefits outweigh the potential harm make sure there are some constructive policies in the pipeline that actually address the very real concerns of pseudoephedrine and meth addiction. So whilst I support this bill I reiterate the need to support individuals families and communities affected by P."