Nicole McKee: Associate Justice Minister on the Government's meth plan

A multi-pronged action plan aims to tackle the country's soaring methamphetamine use.

The Government's launched raft of measures including more funding for community support services and a media campaign for public awareness.

Consumption doubled last year to nearly 1,500 kilos.

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee told Ryan Bridge it will be a coordinated approach.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Another government having another crack at the meth problem. There'll
be an ad campaign, joint ops between Customs Defense, the GCSB,
tougher police powers, border security. Meth use, as you know,
has doubled last year, heading nearly fifteen hundred kilos. Nicole McKees,
the Associate Minister of Justice with me this morning, Minister,
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good morning Ryan.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
How much like do you have a number? What impact
will this have on the supply of meth in New Zealand?
Will we have ten thousand fewer addicts as a result
of the program you've announced, do we know?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, that's the thing, Ryan, is that we've known for
the last twenty years that we've got a meth and
phetamine problem in New Zealand, but no one's actually been
able to coordinate to do anything about it. So there's
been no stats around whether or not we are having
any any effect in the right areas, and it would
seem that we're not when we see that there's a

(00:53):
doubling in the consumption over the last year, when we
see that there's a two hundred and sixty six percent
increase in at the border. So what we can do
is actually implement some of these ideas. So we've got
whole justice sector, Ministers of come in, looked at our portfolios.
What can we do. I can smash it in the
organized crime criminal proceeds area, for example, can we funnel

(01:16):
that money back into the community, And then how do
we assess it? What is it that we're actually going
to be looking for? And I guess some of the
areas that we already know about. So we have this
massive increase in violence, for example. So this fits very nicely,
this plan of what we're doing into the government's target
four of twenty thousand fewer victims by the end of

(01:40):
twenty twenty nine. So we look at the victims and
we know that there is a portion of people on
meth the'refore times likely to commit violence. We know that
those that are on meth are also three points six
times more likely to be victims, so we can measure
it if we see that coming down.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
I get all that, but as you have said, we
know that the problem's gotten way worse despite everything we
have been doing. So yeah, it is. And how radically
different is this?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Well, I think the coordinated approach, not just going off
after them at the border, not just me going after
their funds of misery and giving it back to the community,
but also looking at how we can support the community.
So as an example, eleven million dollars is going into
the Resilience to Organize Crime and Communities, a police initiative
that helps the communities use their own community networks to

(02:36):
support them to get off mess stay off mess. We've
also got.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
What's eleven million?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Is it? So it's eleven eleven million dollars.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
The shortage of rehab beds in this country is a
massive problem. Is eleven million dollars going to fix it?

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, eleven million dollars is going into the rock Work
program to make sure that we can utilize what we
have in our community. This is pulling everything together from
all angles instead of just attacking one. So that eleven
million dollars is not over four years until the end
of December twenty twenty six, helps us pull everything up,

(03:12):
identify where these community lead projects are. Twenty three million
dollars going into a police AML team working with our
international partners. Thirty million dollars also going into secondary school
based teams. I mean there's money going into all sorts
of areas so we can tackle it from we.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Will see it, mister, we will see whether that bears fruit.
Appreciate your time this morning, Nicole McKee, who's the Associate
Justice Minister. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
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