PUSH OFF DEALERS

NOT long after moving to the area four years ago a single mum cornered
Liverpool MP Paul Lynch with some prophetic words.

"I said to him: 'You have a drug pushing problem here and I am
concerned about my son's welfare'."

Her son, now 18, was recently admitted to a drug rehabilitation
facility for the sixth time since he turned 14.

"My son is in a very bad way," the woman, who asked not to be named,
said. "They [drug dealers] are controlling him every day. Every time
we get him better, they undo it.

"I can't leave him on his own. These guys are pushing it all day long
they have taught him how to steal, how to live his life on the
streets. These guys should be jailed. I've told the police they should
jail the ones who sell it to children.

"Paul Lynch is not opening his eyes to what's going on around here.
How many times do you have to tell someone they've got a problem?"

The family of two now resides at a Housing Department facility at
Moorebank, outside Mr Lynch's electorate, but the mother said she has
continued to lobby Mr Lynch for change in the Liverpool CBD.

But help has not been forthcoming from the MP, who was recently made
Local Government Minister and given the Mental Health portfolio.

"I have plenty to do in my electorate without dealing with
non-constituents," Mr Lynch said last week.

"My records reveal one meeting in my office with her. She actively
supported the Liberal Party at the last election. Her campaign
technique consisted of haranguing individual voters and making false
and untrue claims about me. I have sought legal advice about this."