‘We got dud advice’ on meth homes – Bridges

National’s leader Simon Bridges has apologised for his party’s decision to evict Housing New Zealand tenants from homes with meth contamination.

He said advice from the Methamphetamine Standards Committee – a committee of 21 agencies including Housing NZ, the Ministry of Health and Standards NZ – was wrong.

‘‘Ultimately it now seems clear from Sir Peter Gluckman, we got dud advice,’’ Bridges told Radio NZ yesterday.

Last week, the report from the prime minister’s chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, found there was no risk to humans from third-hand exposure to houses where methamphetamine had been consumed.

‘‘I’m sorry the advice we got was wrong and made this situation what it is,’’ he said.

However, the Opposition National’s leader Simon Bridges

leader did not think it was appropriate to offer any compensation to the families displaced by the decision.

‘‘My instinct is that you have rules and they’re followed . . . but if the rationale is strong that would lead to compensation, we would like to see the advice on that.’’

Housing NZ is under fire after spending $100 million on decontaminating homes for methamphetamine when it was not needed. Tens of thousands of homes have been needlessly tested and cleaned at the cost of millions of dollars, with some demolished and left empty.

Gluckman said a ‘‘moral panic’’ around cleaning and remediation had occurred only in New Zealand.

If science had been involved earlier in the policy-making process this could have been avoided.

Mould was a much larger health risk to tenants than meth residue.

When questioned about how much Bridges and National knew about it, broadcaster Guyon Espiner said former prime minister Bill English acknowledged the tests weren’t fit for purpose in 2016.

‘‘We asked the hard questions,’’ Bridges said.

‘‘But consistently the advice that came back . . . was that the [tenants] couldn’t be there.’’