Fenton Darien: Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Fenton Darien: Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:658;Page:7210] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I want to take a reasonably brief call on Supplementary Order Paper 78. I appreciate the Minister’s explanation earlier on and we support Supplementary Order Paper 78 but I do not want any rewriting of history around it. I am one person who has been on the select committee for the last 4 years and went through the submissions of the submitters—along with David Bennett over there so I have no doubt he will agree with me on this—and the issue of benzodiazepine was never raised. It was never raised by any submitter it was never raised by the officials and we were never advised that it had been considered that it would make the scope too wide; there was never a discussion that I can recall on the issue of benzodiazepine. I want to put that on the record so that nobody thinks that the select committee in the last Government was not being responsible when it came to the implementation of the bill that Supplementary Order Paper 78 is amending. 
We support the amendments on Supplementary Order Paper 78 but we do so with a little bit of caution. The caution I want to sound is that there are some issues around this and we saw that in the media when it was announced. One of the things that gives me some comfort is the process in the bill—the process of testing whether people have drugs in their blood. If people are driving with drugs in their blood the testing is for impairment. Also before testing a driver for impairment the police must have good cause to suspect that a person has consumed a drug. 
However the caution I would like to put on the record is that the test could be really difficult for some people—older drivers people who could well have been good law-abiding citizens all their lives. They could be suspected of having benzodiazepine in their blood and that could be related to the fact that they were taking it according to a prescription. They would not be prosecuted but they could feel quite aggrieved against the police so some care in this whole area is required. We accept that it is a problem; we accept and we completely support the previous legislation that Labour introduced and that this Government passed around being able to test for impairment when people have been using drugs and not using them if they are impaired and around not using them according to the prescription and their doctors’ instructions. Also quite a lot of information recently from the New Zealand Drug Foundation states that the drug does significantly increase the risk of crashes and younger users are at higher risk. So obviously those drivers need to be intercepted and that is why we are supporting the legislation. 
Although the police can rightfully use this legislation to target drivers taking benzodiazepine they should be careful that older bona fide users are not being treated unfairly. We have to approach this with caution and I ask the Minister to make a comment on whether there are plans for any public education on drug-driving before the legislation is implemented because that is coming up fast. I ask what the plan is for that so that people know about it and they know how to interpret it if they are taking any medication. All I can say is thank goodness Prozac is not in this list because half the country is on Prozac I understand. I would like to be reassured that leading into this legislation with the addition of benzodiazepines the public is going to be properly educated and prepared for this. I would also like to ask the Minister to make a comment on his other Supplementary Order Paper Supplementary Order Paper 66 which he has not done. Thank you. 
The question was put that the amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 66 in the name of the Hon Steven Joyce to Part 1 be agreed to.