Politicians sparring over Nat’s meth plan
Palmerston North political candidates are divided over proposed measures to deal with the scourge of methamphetamine, with one describing them as ‘‘dogwhistle politics’’.
Deputy Prime Minister and Police Minister Paula Bennett announced a raft of measures against both gangs and methamphetamine, also known as P, as National continued election campaigning on Sunday.
They included funding 1500 more places for drug treatment patients and services provided by iwi and non-profit organisations, as well as new powers enabling police to search the cars and houses of gang members for firearms.
Police can already search houses and cars without warrants for firearms under the Search and Surveillance Act, but National’s policy would target people subject to newly-created firearms prohibition orders.
There would also be a new ‘‘wilful contamination’’ offence for those who contaminate rental properties with drugs.
Palmerston North National candidate Adrienne Pierce said she was ‘‘very confident’’ the moves would be backed by the city’s residents, who were concerned about the relationship between gangs and drugs.
‘‘Drugs are a huge commercial activity. It’s not rocket science – drugs equal big dollars.
‘‘The policies are going to look at addressing that. We’re taking community safety seriously and doing something about it.’’
Palmerston North had great organisations working to help addicts and more funding would help them, she said.
Others were less optimistic, with NZ First MP Darroch Ball calling them reactionary policies in a bid to get votes, and Palmerston North MP and Labour candidate Iain Lees-galloway describing the announcement as ‘‘a lof of hot air’’.
‘‘It’s dog-whistle politics at its worst and they’re making a hash of it,’’ Ball said.
Both Labour and National had blocked NZ First moves to ban gangs outright, which would have solved many issues, he said.
Lees-galloway said former Prime Minister Sir John Key announced a war on P nine years ago, but little to no progress had been made.
While more money for addiction treatment would always be welcomed, it should have been done long ago, he said.
‘‘Under National, the price of P has come down and the purity has gone up.
‘‘All that the war on P has done is remove pseudoephedrine from our pharmacies’ shelves.’’
Green Party candidate Thomas Nash was supportive of more funding for addiction services, but felt the rest of the plan would not work.
‘‘I hope people see this for what I think it is – a cynical play to grab votes from people who want to see the Government being tough on crime.’’.
While police needed enough resources to take on drug dealers, drug addiction needed to be treated as a health problem, he said.