Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): National strongly supports the introduction of roadside drug testing as an absolutely essential measure if we are serious about saving lives on our roads and our regret is that it has taken so long for this legislation to come before the Parliament. We need to get a grip about the scale of death on our roads that has occurred as a consequence of drug-impaired driving. Five years ago the Ministry of Transport reported that we had 18 deaths from drug-impaired driving. Last year that number was 107. That is carnage. That means every single week another two New Zealanders die on our roads because someone is driving under the influence of drugs.I've been heavily influenced on this issue by a horrific tragedy that occurred on the Appleby Straight in Nelson on 31 December 2017. A young man 23 years of age Matthew Dow was innocently driving from Kaiteriteri to meet his family for New Year celebrations and a reckless drug-impaired driver who was under the influence of multiple drugs driving so badly that there were multiple calls to the police about the reckless driving came across on State Highway 60 smashed into the road in what's been described by my emergency services as the most horrific accident that hardened ambulance officers had attended for 30 years. Matthew Dow did not have a chance.The tragedy is that Matthew Dow's just one of hundreds of New Zealanders. The family of Matthew Karen and Peter Dow organised a petition two years ago to try and get the Government to move on drug-impaired drivers. They gathered the support of families like the Porteous family and the Keene family who lost their parents in a seven-death crash in Waverley in June of 2018. I could list name after name tragedy after tragedy as what has occurred and I'd commend for all in Parliament to read the coroner's report Tim Scott's strong plea to this Parliament over 18 months ago to make progress on this issue. I would also thank those thousands of people over 5000 from Nelson who joined with the Dow family in signing the petition for action on this issue.I've said the Government has been tardy. Let's be clear about the paper trail: the Government received detailed proposals for introducing drug-impaired driving in late 2017. The Minister Julie Anne Genter who gave the most unenthusiastic speech I've ever heard for a bill rejected officials' advice in February 2018. She said that roadside drug-testing was too intrusive. She said that it was far too expensive. She said that it breached the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. She said that the impairment test worked perfectly adequately.Well let me talk some facts. It is a matter of record that more New Zealanders today die from drug-impaired driving as compared with drunk-driving. Last year there were 15000 New Zealanders prosecuted for drunk-driving. Do you know how many were prosecuted for drug-driving last year? Forty-two and every single one of those was effectively where there was an accident a fatality and as a consequence there were blood tests that were taken. The impairment test that currently exists for our police officers is unworkable and that is why it's so important that we make progress.I want to commend Wairarapa MP Alastair Scott who 18 months ago brought an almost identical bill to this House and members opposite voted that bill down on first reading. Members like Stuart Nash members of New Zealand First and members from the Green Party should reflect on the fact that in the intervening 18 months over 140 New Zealanders have lost their life. It is not good enough to say that on some technical part of that bill they may have disagreed because every member of this House knows in their heart that you can amend bills at select committee. That was the proper place to do it. It rests on their conscience that they rejected for petty party political reasons that bill that came from Alastair Scott. I have tried three times since with the leave of the House to introduce a bill and members opposite every time have blocked the legislation that would save lives. Again I put it down to petty politics rather than doing the right thing.I was part of this Parliament back in 1993 when we introduced almost identical legislation around dealing with drunk-driving. It was hugely controversial for the National Government at the time. People said that testing people randomly without any due cause was a breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. People argued that the testing equipment was not accurate. People argued that well actually different people helped handle alcohol differently and it was an unworkable regime. The truth is in the road fatalities. Within three years of us introducing random drunk-driving roadside testing we more than halved the horrific toll that occurred from drunk-driving and this legislation has exactly the same potential. We know in the United Kingdom we know in Australia where they have such a regime that they have actually been able to achieve better than a 50 percent reduction in fatalities.On the Table of the House rests a report from the Attorney-General saying that this bill breaches the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. This is actually a good test as to where Parliament puts people's rights because as much as people can claim that having to do a saliva test for drug impairment might be an infringement on their rights I say this: having a drug-driver coming through your windscreen at over 100 kilometres an hour as Matthew Dow faced is a far greater infringement on people's rights than someone having to take a saliva test to save the hundred-plus lives that are lost in New Zealand.This is a poor form of a bill. I make the parallel: the Government says in this legislation that it does not set any of the limits for the five drugs it seeks to test. The Government says Oh we're going to add that later as a Supplementary Order Paper." So really three years and they still haven't worked out what the limits are? Imagine if you'd introduced an alcohol limit bill and you hadn't worked out whether the limit was to be 80 milligrams or 50 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood. That's how poor this law is. The public actually should be submitting on a bill with that detail. This is being introduced at this late stage simply because the Government knows they're vulnerable to losing the vote on the referendum with respect to cannabis. If the bill wasn't introduced prior to the election they would be vulnerable to that argument. The bill is deficient in having that gap. I'd love the next Minister to explain why the public shouldn't in their submissions have the opportunity to have a say on those important limits that will be critical and if so can the Minister table them today because for us to get on with it that is detail that is required.Again I want to pay tribute to Karen Dow the mother of Matthew Dow who has championed this cause with the same passion that those Mothers Against Drunk Driving championed the cause of introducing random roadside alcohol testing. This is a much-needed road safety measure. I'd invite the Minister to move a motion to have the bill reported back by 1 December. Every month we delay this bill coming into effect costs another eight New Zealanders their lives and Parliament needs to move with some urgency."