Kuriger Barbara: Radiation Safety Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKuriger Barbara: Radiation Safety Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 03 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9385. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): It is a pleasure to speak on the third reading of the Radiation Safety Bill and I would like to begin by congratulating Poto Williams the previous speaker because she obviously did not have the opportunity that we had to listen to the wonderful explanations that the officials gave us but I thought she gave a wonderful account. So I say thank you very much to the previous speaker.The Radiation Safety Bill is about establishing a modernised framework to protect the health and safety of people and the environment from harmful effectsaround radiation. As other speakers have said it will bring New Zealand into line with international best practice. It is modernising an Act that is 50 years old. I have very vivid memories of being a new member of Parliament walking into my office and my executive assistant saying to me “Today Barbara you’ve got to speak for 10 minutes on radiation.” and I thought: “Oh OK.” So the first thing I did was I went to Wikipedia but it did not make any more sense to me after that. Of course we have had a lot of discussion since then about ionising and non-ionising radiation but at that stage it did not make any sense at all.The thing that really struck me about this bill at the time—and I remember the aspect that I took from it was the fact that the Act was 50 years old. It was interesting to me to note at the time that that was when The Sound of Music was released and it was also about when the Beatles released their song “Yesterday” and I know we have had previous speakers talking today about the introduction of television. Well I cannot remember the introduction of television as such but I can remember the introduction of colour television which was a very exciting time.I remember when we first started debating this bill in the House we were having conversations about mince pies microwaves and all sorts of things in an effort to understand this whole picture of radiation. Then I have to say it was fantastic because when the officials came in we were presented with some excellent information and some excellent clear graphs and charts that made the process of working through this piece of legislation much much clearer. Even though I did a little bit of biology chemistry and physics at school the presentations we had—although they have not made me a scientist—have given me a much clearer understanding of the process of ionising and non-ionising radiation.But I think it is important to remember as we as members of Parliament enact some of these pieces of legislation that our primary role in this is to ensure that the piece of legislation is going to achieve what it sets out to achieve and our role is to assess the situation to see whether it really is going to protect our people from the harmful effects of radiation. We all know that in the last 50 years we have come a long way. We are all carrying around devices. We have got things in our homes: the technology the internet—the things we never ever dreamt about have come such a long long way and so has radiation. So it is important to realise that these changes will help us in providing better and more modern health services. So as was mentioned before X-rays and the like are a big part of this there is also quite an element of this involved in dentistry and these changes are going to help us do this more safely and will protect our public.It will also protect the environment because when we have people in hospitals who are having X-rays it is not only the person who has the X-ray who is exposed but it is the people who stand in the room or in the corridor just making sure that we have got the right standards in place so that not only the patient is safe but all of those people around them are very safe. I have to say that we have made great advances with cancer treatment in the last few years and cancer radiation and chemotherapy waiting times are now at world gold standard. So it is really important to realise that not only are people getting a better quicker service but now this legislation will be protecting them even further than it did before.It is also important that the select committee has asked to insert a new clause which is clause 92A and that requires the Director of Radiation Safety to review each code of practice once every 5 years. So I think for me looking at a piece of legislation that has been on the table for 50 years it is really important that with the advances in technology we are making now those things are looked at and the Director of Radiation Safety will actually be active over each 5-year period to make sure that this does not drag on.So it is a real pleasure to be speaking on this bill today. I do want to commend the officials again and I also want to say it is wonderful to be working as part of the Health Committee under the chairmanship of Simon O’Connor and with the members whom we have in this group. We have worked extremely well together over time and it is a pleasure to commend this bill to the House. Thank you.