Hutchison Paul: General Debate 
Hutchison Paul: General Debate 
[Volume:658;Page:7026] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 I join my National colleagues in congratulating the Prime Minister John Key and the great New Zealand Government under the National Party on a fantastic initiative in its fight against P. This is a well-resourced campaign. It is a comprehensive well-researched evidence-based campaign directed against an estimated 55000 addicts and the crime syndicates that fuel their habits. 
I was somewhat concerned this afternoon when I heard the Hon Jim Anderton comparing the problems of alcohol and tobacco with the problems of pure methamphetamine. He is quite right they cause huge challenges to New Zealand but in no way should the scourge of pure methamphetamine be belittled. Shortly after in this debate we heard the Hon Annette King trivialise just how serious the scourge of P is in this country. Over the last 15 years we have seen a logarithmic increase in the number of clandestine P labs. We have seen a logarithmic increase in the number of addicts in New Zealand. We have seen a logarithmic increase in the huge costs to every level of society because this scourge affects families young and old and people young and old at every stratum and level of society. 
I would like to go back to Pukekohe in 2006 when a very brave Maori woman by the name of Marie Cotter set off with a contingent of people to march on Parliament. She was a very courageous and humble lady whose relatives were affected by this scourge. Young mothers were causing huge harm to their babies and she decided to do something about it. Indeed that march ballooned as it headed from Auckland. Many thousands of people joined it and finally it came to Parliament in the latter part of 2006. I am afraid to say that at that stage of events the Labour Government was doing very little about this situation. But at that time in Pukekohe we heard the local policemen say that within 5 to 6 kilometres of every town and hamlet in the vast rural electorate that I represent there was a P lab. One of the reasons was that very few police were available to enforce the law. 
In the last 12 months it has been announced that there will be 300 extra police in the Counties-Manukau district and already we have more than doubled the number of police in the Waiuku area. I acknowledge my colleague the Minister of Police for her great effort in ensuring that that election promise was there to ensure the enforcement of the various aspects of this multi-faceted initiative against P. 
One of the great strengths of National’s fight against P is the evidence base behind it. I pay tribute to Sir Peter Gluckman for his very well-reasoned thinking and his excellent report which has resulted in part in this initiative and in the fact that pseudoephedrine will be taken off the shelves of pharmacies throughout the country. Only last year in Pukekohe a highly respected pharmacist was convicted of dealing in P. No one had any idea whatsoever that this man was involved in that; it can affect every stratum of society. I want to end by quoting from the Science Media Centre. Again this is part of the Government’s approach to having an evidence base behind what it does.