Andersen GinnyVIRGINIA ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on the Maritime Powers Extension Bill. It is a bill that does two things: it basically gives customs the powers to board ships and look for illicit substances and one of those most likely to be looked for off the coast of New Zealand will be methamphetamine. Secondly it also creates new drug offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 for drug smuggling to enable those powers to come through.Now one of the things that has been interesting over the development of drugs entering into New Zealand over the last decade or so has been the change in the way that they've arrived on New Zealand shores. Initially we saw methamphetamine being manufactured here in New Zealand largely through clan labs and largely through using pseudoephedrine—large amounts were bought from pharmacies and then extracted to make methamphetamine here in New Zealand. That's changed. What we see now is that the vast amount of methamphetamine brought into New Zealand has been ready-made in other countries and then brought into New Zealand.I'd just like to pick up on the point already made of this idea of being tough on drugs. If we look at how we got tough on drugs in the past one of the things done under the previous Government was to reclassify pseudoephedrine—that kind of drug that was quite useful when you had a cold or flu. It was made unavailable to the average New Zealander and it was made a class B drug. It meant that you needed to go to a GP and get a prescription in order to get that. That has made absolutely no difference because of the way that drug markets change and what we've seen is a vast increase of the amount of methamphetamine coming into New Zealand to the point that we got 500 kilograms off Ninety Mile Beach in Northland last year which completely blew out all statistics—the largest amount ever found. If that's just a drop in the bucket of the amount of methamphetamine that can reach New Zealand shores then we should be very concerned.So I stand in support of this bill as does the Labour Party because it's important that we have the ability to interdict those substances before they reach New Zealand shores. I know that very much of the strategy that customs undertakes is to prevent those substances reaching New Zealand's shores before they need to. I'd like to note the good work done at the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. Although there were only three submissions it's good to see that the vast majority were in support with two being in full support of this change to the two major pieces of legislation it covers.The last point I'd like to briefly touch upon is the importance to state that cracking down on drug trafficking is just one side of the coin; that's controlling the supply. What we need to also concentrate on—and that's what this Government is focused on—is also controlling the demand because you need to have a demand for methamphetamine in order for that supply to be wanted. That's where it's important to have drug treatment and have facilities available not just in New Zealand prisons but also right across New Zealand so those people who are in need of help for methamphetamine addiction issues are able to be assisted when they need to. That is the most effective way I believe that we will curb the drug issues that are confronting New Zealand currently. So without further ado I wish to commend this bill to the House.