Newman Muriel: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading 
Newman Muriel: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading 
[Volume:620;Page:15694] 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the ACT party to say that our party intends to support this legislation to a select committee but like other parties we do have reservations and I would like to use this opportunity to put some of those concerns on the record. The Labour Party measure in front of us right now does sound like it is getting tough on drugs crime and so on but the reality is that the Government’s progress in this area has essentially been pretty much a disaster. Too little too late is probably the best way to describe it. 
I would like to start by outlining some information I received under the Official Information Act in May of 2003. It stated that that was the sixth briefing paper that had been given to Ministers of this Government since 2001 all warning about the problems the country faced with the methamphetamine crisis that was developing. The Official Information Act papers were using as primary indicators the national drug use survey and customs and drugs seizure data. That is what the information was based on and the papers essentially stated that the Government was facing a huge problem. By 2001 the rate of amphetamine and methamphetamine use in New Zealand at 5 percent was higher than in almost every other country except Thailand where the figure was 5.9 percent. The authorities in Thailand had already said that they had an epidemic that was affecting all levels of society. New Zealand was almost at that level. 
The official information briefing paper warned the Government that New Zealand was facing a major problem across the board relating to the criminal area the social area law enforcement and the environmental area unless the Government got on top of the problem. Did the Government get on top of this problem? The answer is no. What we are seeing now is something that should have been happening years ago. This is simply a small hotchpotch measure that makes this Government think that it looks tough but essentially it is not enough to deal with this problem. 
The National Drug Intelligence Bureau back in 2003 said that it did not know of any other Western country experiencing the same explosion in the manufacturing of methamphetamine. Just to put it on record in 1997 the police discovered one clandestine laboratory; in 1998 the figure was two; in 1999 it was five; in 2000 it was nine; in 2001 it was 41; in 2002 it was 147; and in 2003 it was 164. This year the figure is expected to be more than 300 and the police are not getting to many. They know that the number of laboratories out there is growing like Topsy. The amount of P available in this society is such that it is everywhere. We even have corner dairies now selling the pipes that allow people to smoke P. 
What is this Government doing? It is taking police off the beat to guard prisoners and to go out and collect traffic tickets so that it can boost its revenue. It is taking detectives away from the job of fighting the drug barons and it is putting them on traffic duty. It has the drug team enforcing the seizure of drugs as they come in at airports instead of trying to track down the people who are at the heart of this problem of manufacturing and distribution in New Zealand. We have a police force that cannot even do its job because this Government is soft on crime. The official information report that I received in 2003 stated: “The current methamphetamine situation in this country is critical. The escalation of international and domestic organised crime involvement in the importation manufacture and distribution of amphetamine-type substances poses a serious threat to this country. The situation is far more significant and far-reaching than the impact on New Zealand of the Mr Asia syndicate in the late 1970s and early 1980s.” 
That was in 2003. Now the problem is far worse. This Government is trying to pass a half-baked bill that will go nowhere near the steps that are needed to get on top of the problem. I think it is an absolute disgrace. It is an indication that this Government does not care about crime in New Zealand. 
The Official Information Act goes on to warn of something else. It states that it is only a matter of time before those laboratories that manufacture methamphetamines turn to manufacturing ice—crystal methamphetamine. It talks about its powerful form and the effect it will have. It states that the effects of ice are very similar to crack cocaine with one significant exception: the effect of crack cocaine lasts for 10 to 20 minutes; the effect of ice is more prolonged at between 8 and16 hours. We already know the effect of P on citizens and how much more violence there is against the police. The police by the way are not even allowed to get the protective vests that would make them safe from the knife assaults that they face every day out there because of P-crazed offenders. 
We also have violence in hospitals. We have people at risk at all levels of society—even those who deal with children these days who are high on P. Yet this Government is not doing enough to get on top of the methamphetamine problem let alone to get on top of the ice problem which the officials warned over 18 months ago was going to be a real epidemic in New Zealand. 
We then look at the poor old Institute of Environmental Science and Research—the agency that goes out and tests these drugs in the methamphetamine laboratories. We ask ourselves: “Are they on top of their job?”. The answer is no because they are not given the funding or the resources to be able to do the job properly. I say that if this Government is not prepared to allow them to do the job properly then it should be contracted out to the private sector. That is what they did in Britain and that is how they brought down 2-year waits for samples that the police had collected to be analysed so they can put those criminals behind bars instead of having them on the streets. We cannot put someone on remand for 2 years which is how long it is taking to get these samples analysed. 
When the British Home Office contracted it out the time taken reduced from 2 years down to 1 month. That is what we should have in New Zealand so that when the police go out and bust a lab then 1 month later they have their samples analysed and they can bring the case to court. We then need to have some tough sentences. It is absolutely no good that somebody gets busted for methamphetamines gets put behind bars and serves only one-third of the sentence. He or she is then back out on the streets manufacturing again. It is a revolving door situation that this Government is not getting on top of at all. 
Ron Mark 
: What about the people who go on home detention? 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN 
: My colleague makes a good point. They probably have methamphetamine laboratories in their homes and we are paying for them to stay at home and manufacture. It is just appalling. I know that the Government says that it is a matter of resources and we do not have the money to crack down on methamphetamines. That is rubbish. 
Ron Mark 
: A record surplus. 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN 
: There is a record surplus but worse than that the Government is going to spend $21 million in election year selling its Budget. There is a big election campaign fund. Why does the Government not put some of that money into getting on top of this problem? 
Everybody at every level of society is concerned about this issue. The police will tell us that the place is awash with it. This Government has sat on its hands and seen a crisis develop in New Zealand. Unfortunately I do not think the public understands quite how bad it is. We know in this House that it is time the Government got on top of it.