Doocey Matt; Tuiono TeanauLAND TRANSPORT (DRUG DRIVING) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon MATT DOOCEY (Acting Minister of Transport): Thank you Mr Speaker. I present the legislative statement on the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill.SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the parliamentary website.Hon MATT DOOCEY: I move That the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Transport and Infrastructure Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 5 December 2024.This bill amends the Land Transport Act to enable the roll-out of random roadside oral fluid drug testing in New Zealand. Drug-impaired driving is a persistent issue on New Zealand's roads and has a significant impact on road safety. Approximately 30 percent of road deaths involve a driver who has consumed impairing drugs. These are preventable fatalities that result in vast costs to families communities and society generally. We need to do more to detect and deter drug-impaired driving and protect the lives of all road users.The previous Government sought to introduce a roadside oral fluid drug testing regime through the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Act 2022. This Act was intended to enable police officers to test drivers' oral fluid for the presence of the highest risk illicit and prescription drugs that impair driving. However that regime was found to be unworkable as no oral fluid testing device can meet the appropriate criteria set out in legislation. Those approval criteria require a level of specificity and accuracy in the results produced by testing devices that is beyond the current capability of oral fluid testing technology. As a result roadside oral fluid testing has been unable to be implemented.This Government is committed to improving road safety and in particular to targeting the highest contributing factors in fatal road crashes drugs and alcohol. This bill signifies our commitment to address the problem of drug driving and resolve issues within the current regime.The bill establishes a new regulatory framework to enable a compulsory random roadside oral fluid testing regime. The bill will allow police officers to screen drivers for the presence of impairing drugs anywhere any time using oral fluid testing devices without cause to suspect a driver has consumed drugs in a similar approach to breath screening for alcohol.The new oral fluid testing regime will sit alongside existing compulsory impairment testing which police officers can employ when they have good cause to suspect the driver has consumed drugs. The oral fluid testing regime will provide police officers with a faster more efficient tool to remove impaired drivers from our roads and to better deter drug-impaired driving. The bill retains much of the existing regime with some critical changes. The bill introduces new device approval criteria that better reflect the limitations of oral fluid testing devices. The bill provides that in approving oral fluid testing devices for use the Minister of Police will only be able to approve a device if satisfied that it has a high level of accuracy can approve devices that detect both specified qualifying drugs and groups or families of drugs which specified qualifying drugs are a member of and can approve devices that will return a positive result for a specified qualifying drug or specified family of qualifying drugs at a concentration level that indicates recent drug use.The criteria are designed to include safeguards to ensure the regime is administered fairly and does not unintentionally penalise drivers who are not impaired. Drivers who have very low levels of drugs in their system which are not likely to be impairing will not be penalised. The bill provides for the use of those approved oral fluid devices to conduct screening tests at the roadside. The bill enables the Minister of Police to specify by notice the qualifying drugs that will be screened for using an approved device. Typically the devices can detect THC the psychoactive substance in cannabis; methamphetamine; amphetamine; benzodiazepines; cocaine; and opiates. The drugs that are tested for at the roadside will not be known until a procurement process for the devices has been completed after the legislation comes into force. If a driver tests positive for a specified qualifying drug at the roadside they will need to undergo a second roadside oral fluid test. Drivers who return two positive screening tests at the roadside will be prohibited from driving for 12 hours to address any immediate roadside safety risk. The requirement for two positive screening tests before being prohibited from driving is intended to mitigate the possibility of enforcement action being taken on the basis of false positive oral fluid test results.Drivers who refuse to take a screening test will be issued with an infringement fee and demerit points at the roadside and be prohibited from driving for 12 hours. Provided drivers do not refuse a test infringement notices are only issued after laboratory test results are returned. The bill requires the evidential testing of oral fluid in a laboratory before infringement notices are issued.A positive screening test at the roadside will require a sample of oral fluid to be sent to an approved laboratory for testing. An infringement fee and demerit points will only be issued if the laboratory test detects the presence of any specified qualifying drug at a level that is indicative of recent use.The bill enables the Minister of Police to specify the qualifying drugs that will be tested by an approved laboratory which must be from the list of 25 drugs in Schedule 5 of the Land Transport Act 1998. Those drugs were included in that schedule on the advice of an independent expert panel based on New Zealand data linking road crashes with the presence of drugs in the drivers' blood samples. Those drugs are also representative of the drugs typically detected in oral fluid testing devices. A medical defence will continue to be available to drivers who can establish that they have taken any prescription medication in accordance with a current prescription and any instructions from a health practitioner or manufacturer.The regime described in this bill affects some rights and freedoms set out in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. These include the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and the right not to be arbitrarily detained. I note that similar proposals to introduce or change drink and drug driving laws over the decades have had similar impacts. A number of safeguards are built into the bill to help protect people's rights and freedoms. These include using oral fluid to screen drivers for drug use rather than more invasive detection methods such as blood samples.A person that fails two oral fluid screening tests will be prohibited from driving for 12 hours. This provision does not come with an offence and is proportionate to addressing the immediate road safety risk posed by a possible drug-impaired driver and that the basis for charging a person with an infringement offence for drug use will be laboratory testing of that oral fluid which is highly accurate and mitigates the possibility of a person being charged on the basis of a false positive result from a screening device at the roadside.I appreciate that some people will be concerned about being detained on the roadside to undergo an oral fluid test and that this will involve an intrusion of bodily privacy. On balance I consider the potential limitations on the rights of drivers through the new regime are proportionate to the road safety risk that has been addressed. Driving is a heavily regulated activity because of the importance of road safety and the risk to other road users caused by unsafe practices. Addressing the significant risk of harm caused by drug-impaired drivers is in the public interest. This bill is intended to fix the issues with the current legislation which have meant oral fluid testing devices could not be approved. The regime outlined in this bill was developed by the previous Government. While I have taken it forward in the interests of timeliness I invite the select committee to consider further the workability of the proposed regime particularly the availability of screening devices to meet the proposed new criteria above. I will also invite the committee to consider any further possible operational improvements that may be suggested by police.Passing this bill is a priority. It is important to ensure that the New Zealand Police have appropriate powers to detect and deter drug driving. Oral fluid testing for drugs at the roadside has been employed as a road safety tool overseas for decades. It's time for New Zealand to adopt this. The amendments in this bill will enable the roll-out of random roadside oral fluid screening tests with laboratory testing following a positive screening result. This will help keep New Zealanders safe on our roads. It has been estimated that 65 lives and 431 serious death and injury crashes will be prevented over a 10-year period with the implementation of an oral fluid testing regime. I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): The question is that the motion be agreed to.