Tremain Chris: Sentencing (Protection of Children from Criminal Offending) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTremain Chris: Sentencing (Protection of Children from Criminal Offending) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13756. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Most in the House will be aware but I am sure for the three or four people who are now watching me at home—Hon Chris Tremain: Come on—thousands.MIKE SABIN: Possibly five if they have not turned off already. As a former detective I worked on electronics undercover operations surveillance all the “ninja turtle” stuff at the time when methamphetamine—I was hiding behind trees; large ones obviously. I was working in the police at the time when methamphetamine went from being really a very little-known issue to New Zealand having one of the worst problems in the world with that particular drug. It is the only hard drug that can be made in the kitchen from readily available retail chemicals.New Zealand was quite captured by that drug. I was one of the first clandestine laboratory officers trained. The clandestine drug laboratory officers were trained to work alongside the Institute of Environmental Science and Research scientists go in and dismantle the labs gather the evidence and prosecute in respect of these things. During that process I came to learn of the immense dangers that the manufacture of this drug actually created. Sure members will talk about issues other than methamphetamine but if we look at that particular drug and the implication of that on children it will give a very good example I guess of where this bill may indeed have its place and that is in the significant aggravation that is caused when someone is manufacturing methamphetamine in the proximity of children. Sadly all too often that is exactly the case.Here is a drug that is made from readily available retail chemicals. It can be made in a plastic bag it can be made in a soft drink bottle and it is often made in the lounges kitchens and bathrooms of homes all around this country—it has been. There have been thousands of labs—many many hundreds of labs—that have been dismantled of significant size and scale. We are talking about chemicals such as hydrochloric acid sulphuric acid and solvents of all manner that are highly flammable but toxic in themselves such as red phosphorus which will self-ignite without any rhyme or reason. These are chemicals that in combination become incredibly toxic. They are not visible and often cannot be detected by the senses. They will emit during the manufacturing process. They absorb into the wall linings. They go through the wall linings and into the stud timber. They go through the floor down into the substrate beneath the floor linings. They go up into the rangehoods and all throughout the plumbing of the house. For every kilogram of methamphetamine 9.5 kilograms of waste is created and often that is tipped down drains or tipped out over the back lawn.When I looked at a lot of the analysis on the implications of the ticking time bombs thatmeth labs become what became very apparent is that children in those environments by simply crawling around would actually pick up those chemicals. They are typically putting a lot of things in their mouths so trace elements of those volatile insolvents and acids drain cleaner and so forth are being ingested by the children. Then of course those chemicals are producing methamphetamine which is often smoked in that environment as well. So the children are ingesting that smoke and the residue from the smoke also falls and they ingest that. Not only are they being poisoned but also they are ingesting the methamphetamine.It is abhorrent when one considers what goes on. Admittedly most people who are manufacturing in that circumstance are doing so to feed an addiction. They are addicted to drugs because they cannot not take them. But when children are in that environment and the parents can turn a blind eye to it it is almost something that I think is contrary to human nature. It is so abhorrent and the implications for the children are so severe. So on that basis alone I am happy to support the bill to be considered by the Law and Order Committee.The one note of caution that we may signal is the fact that judges do of course have discretionary ability to apply an aggravating factor in terms of sentencing and that will always have to be weighed off against an arbitrary legal status such as this. I think the bill has merit and I commend the member for bringing it forward.