Editorial: Meth moral panic has cost us all

Hundreds of people were affected by unnecessary meth testing on Housing New Zealand Houses.

What a waste.

Wasted money, wasted time, wasted rental space and wasted concern.

When it was revealed earlier this year Housing New Zealand tenants had been wrongly penalised for meth contamination found their state homes, those who had been sounding the alarm about the legitimacy of the testing were not surprised.

They suspected moral panic was clouding better judgment over meth and that the level of contamination people were being booted out for on health grounds actually had no impact.

It turns out HNZ's level for the amount of meth contamination it considered dangerous was set way too low.

The Government blames the previous one, the previous one blames bad advice, but none of that does anything for those whose lives were unnecessarily turned upside down.

Yesterday, the Government announced reimbursement and a formal apology from HNZ to those affected.

That's the right thing to do but only partly goes part of the way to making up for such a staggering blunder.

Up to 2400 people from 800 tenancies we caught up, with many losing their homes, getting kicked off waiting lists and having their credit rating affected.

And that's just in public sector housing.

The cost for testing, remediation and now the cost for reimbursement is money that could have been put towards more genuine housing health concerns like mouldy and damp homes or the general lack of housing.

And why is there so little moral panic over that known issue?

Perhaps the difference was the so-called meth problems was something that could be pinned on vulnerable people, people who weren't so easily offered consideration, whereas the buck for unhealthy homes stops with landlords.

So, what can be recovered from the millions of dollars wasted over meth-testing? Because something needs to be.

Perhaps a lesson?

A lesson to be wary that when moral panic begins to surface in the future; To stop and think about who's benefiting and the consequence for those it's going to affect if the panic is unwarranted.

If we learn that, the meth fiasco won't be a total waste.