Mark Ron: Evidence Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Mark Ron: Evidence Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:640;Page:9973] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I will not hold the House’s time too long. In fact I will take advice from Nandor that it is time for this bill to proceed— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will use the member’s full name. 
RON MARK 
: Oh we are mates. I refer to Nandor Tanczos the honourable member—have you not met him? He is a great guy. He is quite correct that it is time for this bill to proceed given the gravity of the situation now presented to the House through the omission or the error that was made in the Justice and Electoral Committee. Sometimes these things happen and I guess it is appropriate that those who are best positioned to understand the problems presented through the submission and to analyse the proposed amendment which is designed to correct the situation we now have with the Evidence Act 2006 be given the task and the opportunity to get on with that business as quickly as possible. 
Let me just say that New Zealand First views with deep concern any flaws in our law that would make it difficult—indeed in this case impossible—for the police to bring prosecutions against people who make up organised criminal gangs who deal in and peddle methamphetamine and spread misery. It is worthy of noting right now because once again we have in the papers a family member of a very high-profile New Zealander reportedly dealing with the issues related to the use of P. It is not the first time that a high-profile New Zealander has been brought to the attention of the country and the courts for using this drug. We in New Zealand First can only ask what more signs this country needs as to the seriousness of the issues of drugs organised crime and the preying upon our communities our loved ones and vulnerable people by people such as this. How more serious can it possibly be? 
It is timely that we go back and correct the errors or omissions that have been made in the select committee and tighten our laws and remedy this problem. Might we suggest very humbly to the House from New Zealand First’s perspective that there is more we should be doing. This is not just a passing moment in our history; this is something that has been eating away at the social fabric of our nation for decades. The problem now is that we are dealing with an insidious drug that destroys the mind and from that destroys the lives of countless New Zealanders not just the individuals who partake in and use and abuse this drug but the victims who they create along the way as they do whatever they have to do to earn the money to feed the pushers who are supplying them with methamphetamine. 
We in this country—and sadly we in this House—probably will not understand the price being paid in our communities until one of us sitting here in this Chamber has to deal with it in our own family in such close proximity as Paul Holmes and his family are now. Television front-men come and go. We hear their stories and our heart goes out to those people. We also ponder and wonder as to what it is in the minds of people that leads them into using this drug in the first instance. Maybe it is just a lack of education a lack of understanding a missing something in their lives. Maybe they are looking for a cheap thrill a cheap trick. Maybe it is the fashionable thing to do. Maybe it is what everybody else is doing. One thing we know for sure in New Zealand First is that the people who manufacture distribute sell and market these products know exactly what they are doing. They do it for one reason and one reason alone and that is profit so that their lifestyles may be improved at the expense of others. 
We have an omission an error a gap in our law that was not brought about deliberately; it is one of those things that can happen in a select committee and clearly the House has identified the need to move expeditiously on this. Might I suggest that while we are doing that and when we come back to debate this in the second reading and through the Committee stage we really seriously consider what it is that we will do as a nation of people as a collection of parties that are formed along particular philosophical beliefs and against specific policies and as individual members of Parliament to drive these people who manufacture and distribute such an insidious drug out of this country out of our communities and out of our lives. 
We in New Zealand First are dead serious about this and we are committed to this. That is why members will see even tighter legislation come to the floor of this House from New Zealand First. It will be legislation to outlaw and ban the existence of gangs and I look forward to tabling that document. 
Bill read a first time.