Duncan Garner: Perfectly good houses were being pulled down, wrongly condemned as P labs when the most dangerous thing was mould.

OPINION: I smell a rat amongst the tiny traces of meth on them walls that the previous administration effectively said might kill you.

There's a rat in the kitchen all right, a giant rodent, and it just blew up in the Government's face – the inconvenient truth that's now facing not just this adminIstration but the last lot too, who right now are nervously yelling, "We knew nothing!"

So where do we start? OK, before Christmas Housing Minister Phil Twyford secretly orders the prime minister's chief science adviser, Dr Peter Gluckman, to review the data around what is a safe third-hand meth level.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF Housing Minister Phil Twyford says National was gutless over the question of methamphetamine in houses.

Twyford fails to tell media, because, well, he knows the answer, but doesn't know why he didn't tell us. Gluckman probably knows too, because he's too smart not to.

READ MORE:

* Meth house myth: Why hundreds of safe homes were left empty

* Sometimes even experts get it terribly wrong

* Twyford apologises but won't commit to compensation



And whoops, we had it wrong by 10 country miles. If three beers was the limit for drink-driving on Monday, it became 30 beers next night. Third-hand meth was safe as houses. The meth clean-up industry this week crashed and burned. And how quiet they have been.

You won't die from third-hand meth, that's taking wild liberties with the truth, but, hey, who cares about honesty in this giant hoax that National presided over in silence. National was gutless, according to Twyford.

We have to take them at their word, l guess, that they never knew anything, yet perfectly good houses were being pulled down, wrongly condemned as P labs when the most dangerous thing was mould, followed by the weed killer in the shed.

ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF The Prime Minister's chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, released a report saying testing methods for meth houses were flawed and overly cautious.

And the man who blew the whistle, Gluckman, well, he was top science dog under National too. The data hasn't changed one bit.

Is National absolutely sure the man they knighted as Sir Peter didn't send them a warning, a memo, a letter or a note saying, umm time to stop the meth fraud, isn't it? Hello? National?

Maybe climate change was more pressing, but this was happening and hurting.

The only way we will know who knew what is to see all the paperwork between relevant ministers and agencies. Have a proper inquiry.

I also wonder if Twyford's apology on Friday comes wrapped with promises of compensation? Hell no. Twyford actually refused to say sorry just two days earlier. It's the least he can do. People have been screwed because the state set the rules. Fake rules. Real loss. Pay out.

Because once the unacceptable level of meth was set so laughably low, we demolished, scrubbed, replaced and rebuilt every meth affected wall we could.

We kicked out state house lifers under suspicion, we blamed them, we demonised tenants and labelled who we could.

Hundreds of landlords hired the meth-testing industry that's now been busted with its overalls around its ankles. Let us hope they front to tell their story. Set up an independent commission to inquire into who did what and who's to blame.

Yes the meth testers made millions for themselves winning their own war on third-hand P, but their only battle must have been wrestling with their guilt.

They demolished perfectly good homes in the middle of a housing crisis. More than 900 state houses became empty because P had taken over in the badlands. Cars became houses, meth houses became eyesores and worth not a cent in this mythical fairytale. So whose fault is this?

No, it's well past time for accountability and transparency. Front up, fess up, put it right. We pay compo for all sorts of things. This warrants it and some. And if any politicians knew and looked the other way – resign. Now.