Kerre Woodham: Northland desperately need police boots on the ground

I don't know if you caught the story over the weekend - Ngāpuhi, the iwi of Northland, are calling for police to round up the drug dealers in Northland using the same strong tactics they used in drug raids on Ōpōtiki last year.

You'll remember there was criticism of how the police dealt with some of the individuals in Ōpōtiki, mainly coming from the individuals and their families themselves. Now Ngāpuhi is saying bring it on. The leader of the country's largest iwi, Mane Tahere, said he asked the Police Minister for decisive action after recently seeing a group of youngsters smoking a meth pipe in broad daylight in the Main Street of Kaikohe, just down the road from the police station.

As somebody who has been going to the Far North for the past eight or nine years, I've certainly seen a change for the worse in Kaihohe. There are tiny little fragile grass shoots of hope, but the meth is a huge problem there, an absolutely huge problem.

Locals in Opononi stand outside the local dairy, the local shops on benefit day to try and stop the dealers from getting to the kids first. The community is trying to do what it can to stop the dealers getting a strong hold in the community, to try and thwart their attempts to get more young people hooked on the drug. But they are a tiny, tiny, tiny bastion against what is a multimillion-dollar business.

The cold, harsh reality is that Northland has the highest consumption of methamphetamine in New Zealand. Nearly 2000milligrammes per day consumed per 1000 people. And Mane Tahere has said we are doing what we can as a community, as an iwi, as a people but we can't do it on our own and we need the police to step in. He

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerrywood and Morning's podcast from News Talks,
he'd be it's really interesting.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
I don't know if you caught the story over the weekend. Napui,
the Ewi of Northland are calling for police to round
up the drug dealers in Northland using the same strong
tactics they used in drug raids on a Portuqui last year.
You'll remember there was criticism of how the police dealt

(00:37):
with some of the individuals in a Portugui, mainly coming
from the individuals and their families themselves. Now Napui is
saying bring it on. Leader of the country's largest Ewi,
Maney Tahire, said he asked the Police Minister for decisive
action after recently seeing a group of youngsters smoking a
meth pipe in broad daylight in the main street of Kaikohi,

(01:00):
just down the road from the police station. And as
somebody who has been going to the Far North for
the past eight or nine years, I've certainly seen a
change for the worse and kai kohe you know, there
are tiny, little fragile grass shoots of hope, but the

(01:22):
myth is a huge problem there, absolutely huge problem. Locals
in open one stand outside the local dairy, the local
shops on benefit day to try and stop the dealers
from getting to the kids first. You know, look, the

(01:42):
community is trying to do what it can to stop
the dealers getting a stronghold in the community to try
and thwart their attempts to get more young people hooked
on the drug. But they are a tiny, tiny, tiny
bastion against what is a multi million dollar business. The cold,

(02:10):
harsh reality is that Northland has the highest consumption of
methamphetamine in New Zealand, nearly two thousand milligrams per day,
consumed per one thousand people and money. Tahiri has said, look,
we're doing what we can as a community, as an ewi,
as a people, but we can't do it on our

(02:31):
own and we need the police to step in. He said,
a crackdown isn't the solution to all problems in Northland,
but it's a major part. He knows he is calling
down our whole hypocriticism on his head by asking the
police to step in, But he says, our hard, staunch

(02:54):
kind of hate for the police is not the future.
Besides a lot of police afaro anyway, he said, we're
doing what we can as a community. As an EWI,
we need the backup from the police. Compare his pragmatic,
proactive hardline on drugs with the words of Green MP

(03:16):
Tamotha Paul. You'll remember she criticized Wellington's beat patrols. She
accused the police of rounding up the homeless without providing
any evidence other than the musings of a couple of
street people themselves. She said some people felt less safe
because of a police presence. Right. So, this is a
very bright young woman. Tamotha Pool has won numerous scholarships

(03:40):
for academic excellence. She has graduated with the Masters in
Resource and Environmental Planning. And this is a very bright
young woman talking to other very bright young people on
a university campus, postulating and theorizing and coming up with
all sorts of grand plans about how a different world

(04:02):
could look. And that's what you do at a university
when you're young, when you're bright, when you've got all
the answers. When you're at a peace action conference, you
have the luxury of theorizing. I would venture to suggest
most of the young people there were just like Tamotha Pool.

(04:23):
They may not have started in a world of privilege.
But they've taken the opportunities offered to them. They've worked
to realize a future for themselves, and that's a future
that looks very, very different to the lives of the
same young people in Kaikoh, the sort of people that
Mane Tahee is trying to help every single day. He
knows to combat the absolute evil of drugs, his people

(04:49):
don't need to read another thesis on colonization hoo Order
and Fenua and Altor published in twenty nineteen, among many.
He knows what they need are not the academics, but
they need the addiction and rehab special They need to
keep up that community involvement, that community fight against the drugs,

(05:14):
and they desperately, desperately need police boots on the ground.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
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