MP REPORTED TINNIE HOUSE NEXT DOOR TO HIS OFFICE

Labour MP Ross Robertson says he twice told police about a "tinnie
house" operating next door to his Otara electorate office.

Mr Robertson said he had notified the authorities as soon as he found
out about the drug dealing.

Police raided the property, and he notified them again when the
cannabis dealing continued. He said the tinnie house was set up this
year.

"It hasn't been there that long. It's not as if it's been there for a
year or six months."

Mr Robertson was responding to a Herald on Sunday story which
reported that 40 people entered the house in two and a half hours on
one day last week.

The paper said the house had been raided once despite a string of
complaints to police. One man was arrested on a drugs-related charge
after the raid.

National Party law and order spokesman Simon Power said the failure
to carry out another raid despite the complaints was not good enough.

"We must stamp out these drug dealers. Getting rid of them must be a
higher priority for the police than it seems to have been in this
case," Mr Power said.

"I would like the police minister to explain what happened here."

Mr Robertson said he could do no more than alert police. "Once I've
given them the information, I can't do anything else. It's in their
court. I'm not a police officer."

He said he worked with police on issues such as gangs in the
electorate, but a drug bust was an operational matter for police
alone, and it was up to them to decide when to act on information
they were given.

"They have got operations going on all the time. I'm sure there are
other houses they're monitoring."

Mr Robertson said he could not remember exactly when he last notified
police, because he had a heavy workload.

He used the office on Friday afternoons, because he shared his time
between electorate offices in Papatoetoe, Otara and Meadowlands near
Howick.

A spokesman for Police Minister Annette King said she would not
comment on operational matters.