Hutchison Paul: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee Third Reading 
Hutchison Paul: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:21491] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 I think it is of huge concern to Parliament and hopefully to the public of New Zealand when we hear the leader of the Progressive Party the Hon Jim Anderton making light of the affirmative resolution procedure. He said that it was not a draconian procedure. 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: That’s right. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: Well he is absolutely wrong. He should remember and be reminded of exactly what the Regulations Review Committee said about the affirmative resolution procedure. It said that the amendment of primary legislation by an Order in Council is commonly referred to as a “Henry VIII” clause and is regarded as undesirable because it allows the executive the power to override Parliament. That is exactly what the Progressive Party under the Hon Jim Anderton would love to do. 
He then said that Wyatt Creech some years ago had no problem bringing it in. Well it was brought in with very careful consideration because of the extreme concern about the proliferation of controlled drugs in New Zealand and the very very important need to make sure that law enforcement agencies had some methods to be able to reduce this proliferation. But here we have the leader of the so-called Progressive Party— 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: The “Jim Anderton Party”. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: Yes that is what it should be called. But the very important principle is that the leader of the so-called Progressive Party said that this affirmative resolution procedure is not draconian. It is a very very serious procedure. 
The other point the Regulations Review Committee made was this: “In our view the classification of restricted substances is a matter of significant policy that should be dealt with by primary legislation. If a matter needs to be dealt with urgently there are ways of dealing with primary legislation in an expeditious manner.” That is very very important to remember. The other point— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: The Regulations Review Committee said that? 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: Yes the Regulations Review Committee said that. 
Hon Member 
: Are you going to repeat it? 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: I will say it again if the member likes because it is absolutely the nub of the matter: if indeed a matter “needs to be dealt with urgently there are ways of dealing with primary legislation in an expeditious manner.” 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: That was my point. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: That is exactly what the Hon Maurice Williamson was saying and it is very very important that Parliament is reminded of it. 
The other practical point that was brought up by the Regulations Review Committee was that the Health Committee could use up all its time on this particular matter. That is of great worry because surely the Health Committee should be spending its time on much more important matters like the proliferation of spending—waste—that has occurred under the Labour regime over the last 5 years. 
But we also had Steve Chadwick the member for Rotorua and chairperson of the Health Committee saying that no this matter of affirmative resolution is actually not all that important because the Government is putting someone from the Ministry of Justice on the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs. That is great but all the people that one puts on the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs do not make any difference in terms of the huge importance of the normal parliamentary process being carried out when the leader of the Progressive Party the Hon Jim Anderton says that it does not matter that there is a problem with party pills down in Christchurch that he did not hear about it over the last 10 years but has finally woken up to it so he will defy the normal important democratic process and have a knee-jerk reaction to it. 
I think it is very very important that the people of New Zealand realise the lengths that Jim Anderton and his party will go to in order to defy the normal democratic processes.