Sio William: Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 06 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17545. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): I am going to take just a short call on the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill. I am not on the Health Committee which will review this particular bill. I have attempted to look quickly through it prior to it coming here. I think we should welcome the decision that the Government has taken. Although of course Labour claims some responsibility for that I think it is also kudos to the wider community out there who demanded of this House that the way forward for us was to change the legislation that we initially passed.One of the groups that was quite vocal—and rightly so—against the previous legislation was local government throughout New Zealand. I wonder whether the Minister in the chair the Minister of Health would be able to crystallise information for local government in New Zealand in particular on just how this new legislation will impact on the role of local government. As I said just quickly scanning the legislation there is no reference to it there other than reference to the Psychoactive Substances Expert Advisory Committee. The Minister should know that with the previous legislation local authorities up and down this country were quite vocal about the responsibility that the previous legislation imposed on them without giving them the appropriate protection in how to advocate strongly for the views of their particular communities. I suspect that local government would be happy that we have essentially followed the advice that it has given this Government by banning the availability of many if not all of the legal highs that were available.There is another concern I believe which was one of the reasons why I was supportive of the previous legislation and that is the concern about what happens if when we are banning these legal highs that then makes them available for the underground market. I think that although we welcome the U-turn of this Government in this legislation and although we welcome its U-turn on testing these substances on animals there are those two particular issues that I wonder whether the Minister would be able to shed some light on—first the role that local government plays in the new legislation and second the efforts that need to be made to prevent the black market.As everybody else in this Chamber has said these products are a scourge in our community. I suspect that no one here in this Chamber who is a parent would like to see their children picking one of these things up and consuming it. Not too long ago there was an email that was circulated within the emails of Government departments where somebody suggested that there was a legal product being produced that would taste like a strawberry and look like a strawberry. I think the police identified that it was a scam but these are the potential dangers that I think still lie unanswered.I remember that in 2001 the community inŌtara and theŌtara Music Arts Centre brought down a group called the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E who were Samoan rap dancers. They were hard-core rappers who came down to talk to the young people here about their experiences living in Los Angeles. The issue obviously got on to drugs. What Irecall from that conversation was that they said that New Zealand had not yet experienced the full force of the kinds of bad drugs that they saw on their particular streets. The fact that we have allowed some of this stuff to be on sale for a while now is still cause for concern.So yes I welcome the legislation but I wonder whether the Minister is able to just shed some light. It is not clear to me from the legislation before the Committee what role local government plays and what the transition process is. Although I suspect that local government will welcome the banning of these substances there is a strong mood within local government throughout New Zealand at the moment that this Government tends to impose legislation on local government and then let local government pay for it. I think it has every right to do so but I think that shedding some light on what that responsibility is would be very very helpful.Finally also how do we then address the black market? If we are banning these substances and we are going to make it difficult for some of these things to be produced and sold to our young people—and I agree with the banning and I agree to our making it difficult—how do we make sure that they are not readily available in other markets? Thank you.