Tirikatene RinoESTIMATES DEBATEIn CommitteeDebate resumed from 25 July.External Sector (continued)RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Just continuing on with my contribution regarding Vote Customs the New Zealand Customs Service—one of its key roles is to protect our borders and to keep our community and our country safe from illicit drugs and other harmful materials. To its credit the Customs Service last year did: it seized 292 kilograms of methamphetamine and 1.1 tonnes of precursor were seized by the Customs Service. So it is doing a good job in that area.If you look at the wider picture though there is P epidemic in our country. It is seen through the countless cases of addictions and damaged families wreaking havoc up and down the country. So much so that my whanaunga Peeni Henare said that up in Tai Tokerau Kaitāia has now got the name Kaifryer" due to the amount of P that is flooding that community and promoting the illicit black market. When I posed this very question about how much P or its precursor are actually crossing by the border—i.e. that Customs is missing at the border—to the Comptroller of Customs and her vast team of lawyers policy analysts senior managers and the lot I was absolutely aghast at the answer because they could not give an answer. All I asked was for an estimate—an estimate of how much P how much drugs they are missing at the border. They all looked at each other and they could not come up with an answer. They said: "Oh because it's impossible for us to know."Well we know that there is an absolute proliferation of P through our health system through the police. P addiction is the No. 1 reason why parents can no longer look after their children who go to their grandparents. It is a huge problem across our society. We are getting only half the picture from the Customs Service. It is great for it to try to laud how great it is with what it is intercepting at the border but it is really what it is missing—that is really what counts when it comes to Estimates. We are dealing with an Estimates bill and it cannot even estimate the amount of drugs and P and precursor that it misses. I think that is an indictment on the Customs Service.But it is no surprise really because under this Government it is all about making the numbers look good. It is all about giving half the story. It is great for them to say "Oh yes but we intercepted X amount at the border. It's going up every year." but we cannot estimate actually what is out there in society at the moment even though we know that there is a flood. There is a flood of P coming across the border so much so that it is called the "quiet tsunami". That is why this Government is failing. We have had 9 long years of it giving doctored numbers giving us half the story whether it is in the health system whether it is in employment figures whether it is in the P numbers themselves. [Bell rung] We are being disserved by this Government and we need to have a change because we know we want to get the full picture.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Order! In this debate when you get the bell you sit down or you seek another call. I just remind members that in this debate we are debating the report so members should limit—Rino Tirikatene: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Well I am actually speaking at the moment so you will have to wait. During the course of this debate we are debating the report. So if members want to wax lyrical and jump into a campaign speech they will be pulled up as other speakers have been. Members are reminded that this is a debate on the report. RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I just want to draw your attention to the fact that the timer in the Chamber is all over the place. So if you could send a message to your Clerks that—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Well by way of explanation the timer was going up because you were told you had 3 minutes and 55 seconds. It is easier to calculate if we set the timer from zero going up so that when it hits 3.55 we can press a button and make you sit down—albeit it has not been that effective in doing that—and now you will notice that the time will start from 5 minutes and count down to zero."