Govt locking down methamphetamine ingredients

The Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill will restrict the availability of the main precursor substances used to make the Class A drug methamphetamine, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne says.

 Speaking at its second reading in Parliament last night, Mr Dunne said the bill would “close off the source of domestic methamphetamine precursor substances”.

 “This cannot wait. Methamphetamine is the only illegal stimulant drug commonly manufactured in our country, and we have high rates of use by international standards,” he said.

 

He said the Bill would reclassify ephedrine, and in particular pseudoephedrine, as Class B2 controlled drugs, removing over-the-counter pharmacy access to pseudoephedrine and making it a prescription-only medicine.

 He said this will make it more difficult for criminal manufacturers to get the ingredients they seek, while allowing it to be used as a medicine for those who need it.

 Reclassification as a Class B2 drug would also allow Customs and Police increased powers to clamp down on supply.

 

He said the changes were in the context of updating the country’s drug legislation to meet the challenges and issues faced today.

Synthetic cannabis clamps will be ‘first item of business’

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne has confirmed in Parliament that “stronger additional amendments” to drug legislation to deal with synthetic cannabinoids are just weeks away and will be Parliament’s “first item of business” in its next session.

 He said the changes will clamp down on synthetic cannabis until the onus of proof can be changed and the industry made to prove its products are safe.

 Speaking last night at the second reading of the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill, Mr Dunne said the changes would effectively be an interim step before the Government can legislate to reverse the onus of proof so the synthetic cannabis industry has to prove its products are safe before they can be sold.

 Mr Dunne said the Government backed the Law Commission proposal and is now working “to put in place such a regime”, he said.

 “I have been working on stronger additional amendments … that will be introduced by way of supplementary order paper before the committee stage,” he said.

 Mr Dunne said the industry had shown itself to be consistently irresponsible with the health of young New Zealanders “simply to make a fast buck”, and the Government was going to “comprehensively and once and for all fix this situation”.

ACT Maori problem starts with insulting pronunciation

The ACT Party has a problem with Maori to such an extent that it chooses to insult Maori politicians by deliberately and consistently mispronouncing their names, UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne said today.

 “Their weekend advertisements come out of precisely this kind of cynical and nasty politics – and ACT needs to take a hard look at itself,” Mr Dunne said.

 “Where there is no disharmony, they look to create it.

 “This is not where New Zealand and New Zealanders are today – and certainly not with the mean-spiritedness that it takes to deliberately set out to insult and disrespect any other person.

 “When you get everyone from Don Brash to Rodney Hide to Hilary Calvert seeming to go out of their way to mispronounce names such as Tamihere, Harawira and Tariana – none of them awkward names to get your tongue around – then you know something is going on.

 “It is the dog-whistle politics of disrespect,” he said.

 “We can all mispronounce names from time to time; we can all slip into old habits and go back to 70s white pronunciation of a Maori name or place name we grew up with. That is not the issue.

 “In my experience, Maori make a lot of room for that.

 “But it is not possible for an educated, articulate, aware New Zealander today to not know basic Maori pronunciation. That means the choice not to pronounce correctly is deliberate, and I think the motives for that are never good.

 “If you want goodwill back from someone, then show them goodwill.

 “ACT and its caucus need to ask themselves what sort of goodwill and harmony they want in this country and maybe take some steps towards that,” Mr Dunne said.

 “In the context of all that, their weekend ads speak for themselves.”

Strong public support for child support changes

Seven in ten people responding to the Government’s consultation on the child support scheme want comprehensive changes to the system, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said today in releasing a summary of more than 2000 public submissions.

 “The submissions generally reflect the strongly held views in the community that the scheme can be fairer to all parties and of more direct benefit to the children it is set up to support,” Mr Dunne said.

 “I intend to deliver on that,” he said.

 The options in the Supporting children consultation, conducted late last year, included looking at the child support formula (what a  paying parent must contribute); including revised estimates on the cost of raising children; the number of nights used to determine a shared-care arrangement and counting both parents’ income when setting support levels. 

 Options to change the rules for how child support payments could be made and for late payment penalties were also presented, with a view to increasing payments made on time.

"My aim in instigating this review process was to make the scheme fairer and to take into account changes in society since it was introduced in 1992," Mr Dunne said.

According to feedback :

•   69 percent or submitters wanted a comprehensive revision of the child support formula to take into account all the main options for change;

•   69 percent felt that the current threshold for taking into account the sharing of care of a child between parents should be lowered from the current 40 percent of nights a year

•   68 percent believed the income of both parents should be taken into account when working out child support, with many noting the financial responsibility that both parents have towards their children

•   66 percent wanted child support payments deducted from the paying parent’s pay-packet; and

•   65 percent thought the child support penalty rates for parents who default on their payments should be reduced after one year’s default to allow other enforcement measures to be used.

 “There are more than 200,000 New Zealand children directly reliant on the child support scheme to meet their needs. It is crucial that they receive the financial support they need and are due,” Mr Dunne said.

 “Part of making that happen is also giving parents a sense of fairness about the whole process. They should feel – even if they do not like certain aspects – that the scheme is fair and is there for the benefit of their children.

 “When parents feel that it is fairer, then we can expect higher levels of compliance, but the bottom line is that every parent has a duty to support their children.

 The summary of submissions can be viewed on Inland Revenue’s tax policy website, www.taxpolicy.ird.govt.nz 

 Mr Dunne said the next step is that he will present options to reform the child support scheme to Cabinet next month, and depending on Cabinet’s decision, he would expect to introduce a bill to Parliament containing the necessary changes later this year.

Revenue Minister gets scam tax refund email

Foreign scammers might have over-stepped the mark with the latest target of their tax refund email scams – Revenue Minister Peter Dunne.

Mr Dunne and members of his staff received emails today telling them they had tax refunds waiting for them and only had to click on the given link and fill out a claim form to get them.

“Needless to say, I am not clicking on the link or filling in any form and I can only repeat Inland Revenue’s regular warnings on such email requests.

“People should be very careful about giving out their IRD number and any other personal details.

“There are emails circulating that attempt to trick recipients into divulging personal information. These emails are known as phishing emails.

“No one should click on such a link or reply to such an email, fitting this description.

“Inland Revenue would never send you a hyperlink in an email. Delete the email from your inbox and trash folders," Mr Dunne said.

He said it was notoriously difficult to track down those behind such scam emails and websites.

“So it is likely either Nigerian scammers or Labour trying to add to its email databases."