Stewart Barbara: Crimes (Drug Rape) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Stewart Barbara: Crimes (Drug Rape) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 On behalf of New Zealand First it is my pleasure to rise and support the Crimes (Drug Rape) Amendment Bill to the Law and Order Committee. This crime is despicable and it is happening throughout New Zealand in many environments. It is despicable because the assailant with the use of a variety of drugs prevents the victim from physically resisting or consenting to any connection. The drugs used can be intoxicating or illegal substances or some sort of hypnotic drug. The assailants do not need to be worried about the victim’s screams or needing to use physical force. The drugs they administer actually immobilise and silence the victim. These assailants deserve to be dealt with in the most severe way possible. This is a dreadful crime. I do not know what would be worse for the victim—being unable to forget or being unable to remember. Either way the trauma experienced is absolutely horrific. There is no excuse for this. 
These drug rapes are happening to men and women throughout New Zealand and it is not just a big-city crime. It is happening everywhere. It is not happening just to young people either; although they are the principal targets. Statistics show that everyone is vulnerable to this type of attack. I accessed the Roofie Foundation website in Britain and saw that people over the age of 40 have also been targeted in bars pubs and clubs. An article in the  
Southland Times 
 of August 2003 reported that 11 percent of the victims were male. So this crime can happen to anybody. 
There have been many incidents of this crime in New Zealand towns. I contacted the police in the Waikato town of Huntly and even they have had this crime reported. It is not a new crime but it is difficult to identify and difficult to prosecute successfully. Indeed many cases go unreported because the victim does not seek help or even report the incident. As Judith Collins said some victims do not remember until years later. 
The police say that drug rape is probably not as uncommon as the official statistics tell us. We know the drugs are usually administered orally. The assailant spikes the drink of the victim and it is not a myth because these drugs are easy to administer and the victim is totally unaware as the drugs are usually colourless and tasteless. It is a totally planned premeditated crime. It does not happen just on the spur of the moment. These assailants have to plan their moves carefully. It can only be a total sleaze who carries out this type of crime. Such people deserve to have the full force of the law thrown at them; to be prosecuted by the justice system. But this crime is so difficult to prosecute. Worse it is on the increase and it is happening not only in bars and clubs but in workplaces and at private parties—indeed everywhere. Nobody knows how common this drug-facilitated rape is because there is no way of measuring the number of incidents. 
The fact is that in these cases time is the enemy and that makes this crime doubly devious. When the victim recovers or even remembers enough to make a complaint and can then be tested there can often be no trace of that drug left in the victim’s body. I was very pleased to read recently that a matchbox-size detection kit to test drinks for date-rape drugs is now on sale in Britain and is to be sold in New Zealand. This drink detective which apparently tests for the three most commonly used drugs will be marketed for female and male drinkers in bars and clubs. As far as I am aware this kit has not yet gone on sale in New Zealand. It is a sad fact of modern life that a detection kit like this is needed. 
I was interested too to read comments made last year by the Drug Rape Trust chairperson Jenny Fenton. She said that the ease with which people could buy recreational drugs had boosted drug rape cases and that she had seen a lot of middle-class men involved in this crime because they had the money and easy access to the drugs. We need legislation that will enable prosecutors to work against drug rape. New Zealand First supports this legislation.