for public release
29 May 2018
First National: Initial Response to Gluckman report on Meth
A bombshell report shows there is no risk to humans from third hand exposure to houses where methamphetamine has been
consumed. The study by the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor Peter Gluckman found that New Zealand had made a "leap
in logic" setting standards, and set a standard used overseas to clean "clan labs" was now being used to test and clean
houses where meth had only been smoked.
Our initial responses to the Gluckman report are as follows:
“Given the Governments strong position on increasing housing stocks and the ministers immediate action to release a
large quantity of houses previously deemed uninhabitable back into the system it’s difficult not to see a political
motivation in this”.
“There appears to be absolutely no new research in this report. Instead, the report appears to be a regurgitation of
pre-existing and incomplete data which has somehow been reconstructed into a recommendation to Government”.
“The report appears to endorse levels 10-20 times higher than anywhere else on the planet. Is the rest of the world
wrong and the New Zealand Government right”?
“Who will compensate the owners of the tens of thousands of houses which were deemed to be contaminated prior to this
announcement and which have since been remediated at the cost of many millions? Who picks up the tab for the loss of
sale price, the LIM registrations, the costs of remediation, and the many Real Estate Salespeople who have inadvertently
had their careers ruined through the existing levels?”
“Who will pay for the many cases which have gone before the Tenancy Tribunal and which have resulted in a successful
prosecution where complainants have successfully argued adverse health effects in the living environment?”
“Simply put, the government needs a win on social housing and has chosen to put the health of children at an
unquantifiable risk in order to achieve it”.