National Party Housing Spokesperson Judith Collins has defended former Housing Minister Paula Bennett for her approach after a new study said the risk of harm from meth contamination is much lower than assumed.
Housing New Zealand, under the National Government, evicted thousands of tenants and undertook millions of dollars worth of cleaning operations after trace amounts of methamphetamine was found.
Read more: No link between third-hand exposure to meth and adverse health effects: new report
However, a report released this week by Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister Sir Peter Gluckman concluded the risk from small amounts of methamphetamine contamination is much smaller than thought.
The country’s top scientists say they’re no health risks from third hand exposure where P has been consumed. (Source: Other)
"In the absence of clear scientific and health information, there has been an assumption among the general public that the presence of even trace levels of methamphetamine residue poses a health risk," Sir Peter Gluckman.
"There is absolutely no evidence in the medical literature of anyone being harmed from passive use, at any level. We can't find one case."
Housing Minister Phil Twyford has said 240 currently-empty state houses being cleaned for methamphetamine will be put back into use within weeks, and New Zealand would now save about $30m per year on "unnecessary" testing.
"Very significant sums of money have been spent on testing and decontamination of houses that are thought to have been contaminated by methamphetamine," Mr Twyford said yesterday.
"Housing New Zealand alone in the last fours years has spent $100m on testing and remediation."
THE GOVERNMENT DIDN'T TELL HOUSING NEW ZEALAND TO DO THIS
Speaking this morning to TVNZ 1's Breakfast programme, Ms Collins was defensive of her former government, saying the decisions to evict people and undertake testing were made by Housing New Zealand, not Ms Bennett.
"The government didn't tell Housing New Zealand to do this - this is a Housing New Zealand response and they have to act independently," she said.
"If Housing New Zealand has taken certain steps .. they have told the minister what they've done, they haven't asked the minister's permission."
Ms Collins said ministers needed to accept advice from agencies, even in the absence of evidence.
"You can't, as a minister, sit there and say 'well, I'm going to override you because I want you to give us the evidence'.
"Ministers have to take the advice of their officials, otherwise they are out on a limb and if Paula Bennett had taken the advice ... to leave people in these homes and it turned out that the were some cases [of harm] ... then you'd be asking why she did that."
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