Yates Dianne: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading 
Yates Dianne: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:21235] 
DIANNE YATES (Labour—Hamilton East) 
: 
 I have just come from my office where I have been answering emails from people who support the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3). They are people who deal with teenagers and with a lot of young people and who deal with the health system. Today I have also just been interviewed by a student who asked me about the select committee processes and how members work together. I am pleased to say that largely the Health Committee members worked very constructively together on this bill. I particularly thank Judy Turner of United Future who worked through some of her differences on this bill. We came to very effective compromises and showed how political parties can work together constructively for the benefit of New Zealand and not just grandstand which is what we have seen very recently from the National Party. 
I am on both the Regulations Review Committee and the Health Committee and I know that the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) is one that does use the affirmative resolution process. It uses that process because as Dr Hutchison knows new party pills and new concoctions that are very detrimental to the young people who access and use them come on the market very very quickly and we need a very quick response to that situation. I particularly noted the submission made by the National Council of Women which recognised the need for the affirmative resolution process that we use in this bill in the response to drugs. As Dr Hutchison said we are talking about rare cases. There are strict controls. There is an expert advisory committee which—as Dr Hutchison knows—is made up of medics who have expertise in the area and are well able to advise the Minister on the new drugs that come on the market and on how we need to respond to them. 
I am surprised that Dr Hutchison would want us to wait for a year as he said in his minority report before we respond to such drugs. I am also very interested to note that he took no notice of Dr Tonia Nicholson— 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: You waited a year for the bill to come in. 
DIANNE YATES 
: Dr Hutchison has had his turn. Dr Tonia Nicholson is— 
Katherine Rich 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member who is speaking continues to call Dr Hutchison “Dr Hutchinson”. I think she should call him by his correct name: Hutchison. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I thank the member. 
DIANNE YATES 
: I did intend to say Hutchison. I am sorry if I mispronounced it or the member heard it in that way. I am sorry that my enunciation was not clear enough for the Opposition members but I do try to speak clearly. [ 
Interruption 
] That is a waste of time. I do not wish to waste the House’s time on such trivialities. 
We are dealing with very serious issues to do with young people’s lives. I thank Dr Tonia Nicholson an expert who works in the accident and emergency department at Waikato Hospital for her submission on the bill and for advising us about the great seriousness of the problem. She would actually ban all these drugs altogether. She pointed out as Dr Hutchison has not done that the problem is not just party pills. It is when drink and party pills or an upper and a downer are taken together that we end up with young people in Waikato Hospital on a Saturday night. So it is very very important that we process this bill. As a member of both the Health Committee and the Regulations Review Committee and considering that we are passing legislation that concerns the lives of young people and that we want to protect them in the very best ways possible I advocate that we pass this bill as quickly as possible.