Collins Judith: General Debate 
Collins Judith: General Debate 
[Volume:658;Page:7016] 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 I thank members opposite for the applause! Last week when the Leader of the Opposition was charging around America making out that he was still the Minister of Trade—and of course he does not seem to have found his way back—the Prime Minister was dealing with a really big issue. He was dealing with a comprehensive plan on methamphetamine—P. It is a plan that by the way has been met with almost universal applause except from the Labour Party. Let me quote the Mayor of Manukau City Len Brown: “It’s good to see the government taking a lead on tackling this scourge and I’m also happy with the support for P treatment and detox. We need to help people who are caught up by this horrible addiction. I welcome this announcement from the government. We have now got to focus on tackling the drug runners and I’m working closely with the police on a campaign to shut down the P labs and dak houses in our city.” 
Let us have a look at what New Zealand police say. They are very excited about this: “a whole-of-Government approach means that we can actually get some action.” That is what they want to see. As the Opposition worries about who is doing what where how when and how fast this Government is getting on with the job of dealing with the big issues. 
Why should we be taking methamphetamine so seriously? That is the question we have heard from Labour members today in their questions. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: No you haven’t. That is wrong. 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: We have heard from Jim Anderton today about why we are taking this so seriously. This is why we should actually. This is the difference. Methamphetamine has some very very serious consequences for people. It is extremely addictive in nature. We know that about 50000 New Zealanders are addicted to this dreadful drug and we also know that their families all suffer because of it. My colleague Tony Ryall has outlined some of the results of that: children killed because of this drug; babies left and abused because of this drug; families destroyed lives destroyed and young people dying of heart attacks because of this drug. 
What happened under the previous 9 years of a Labour Government? Absolutely nothing happened. In fact what has happened out in the community is that after 9 years of a Labour Government we now have organised crime in this country. Organised crime has gone right through the whole country. We now have organised crime involved in business. We have organised crime everywhere. The previous Government did not listen to the warnings of the Police Association—the union of police officers—which told it what would happen. And the Police Association was right. It was absolutely right. It is no wonder that the previous Minister of Police shuts up. The Police Association was right and she would not listen. New Zealand police know exactly what has happened. We know that this country has allowed organised crime to come into it. This is a country that used to be organised crime - free. The previous Government let it in. 
It is really important to remember that organised crime is about money. One of the great things that the police love about our methamphetamine plan is that the police can target the money. We are going to go after the money and the assets—the money that has been ripped off from our people. This Government has already introduced 10 bills this year. That is 10 bills in 10 months. How many more is that than the previous Government introduced? It is 10 more. 
The previous Government never recognised the terrible crime that P has done to our people in this country. Yet it has left us with the highest rate of methamphetamine addiction per capita than anywhere in the world. That is the legacy of a Labour Government that could not tackle the hard questions and instead went after only the soft answers. When they looked at burglaries they wondered why burglaries went up. Well that is because of P addictions. They wondered why violent crime went up. Well that is about P addictions. Those crimes are all fed by P. The previous Government never once recognised it.