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Louis Houlbrooke
New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union
When it was revealed that a Mongrel Mob-affiliated group received $2.75 million to run a meth rehab programme, Taxpayers’ Union supporters pitched in to publicise the Prime Minister’s dodgy decision with nationwide newspaper ads and promotion of a petition signed by 24,000 New Zealanders.
National MP Simeon Brown was paying attention. He submitted a bill to cancel the funding, and this week it was drawn from the Parliamentary members’ ballot. This is fantastic news. The Government parties will now be forced to declare with a clear vote whether they believe gangs should be taxpayer-funded.
The timing of the Bill couldn’t be worse for the Government.
On Thursday eight people connected to the Mongrel Mob were arrested for selling meth in Hawke’s Bay – the same community served by the rehab programme! It’s stunning evidence of what we (and frontline police) have been saying all along: the Mongrel Mob profits from meth addiction, and therefore cannot be trusted to profit from the rehab too.
Harry Tam (the patched member who runs the rehab programme) should be hauled before a Parliamentary select committee to explain his relationship with the eight individuals arrested. Can he honestly say he’s not in cahoots with the gangsters slinging meth on his turf? We doubt it.
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