Hutchison Paul: Land Transport (Admissibility of Evidential Breath Tests) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hutchison Paul: Land Transport (Admissibility of Evidential Breath Tests) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6631. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 It gives me a huge pleasure to speak in favour of the Land Transport (Admissibility of Evidential Breath Tests) Amendment Bill. May I congratulate the initiator of this bill Scott Simpson the member for Coromandel. This is indeed a— 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: It was Woodhouse who drafted it. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: Well maybe it was. So there is another Government member to congratulate on this very good bill. I am also pleased to be standing to the right of the chairman of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee David Bennett. I know that he will very ably ensure that the bill goes through the select committee very expeditiously. 
But I want to just go back in history a bit of time to when I was a young medico and the days even—believe it or not—before accurate breath testing. On the North Shore there was a very infamous doctor. What we used to do when the drivers were brought in was have them firstly undergo the “walk along the line straight” test. They were then asked a few questions and if they failed both they would have the choice either to have their blood taken for testing or to be put into the cell. The very infamous doctor was infamous because he was not good at getting blood. I vividly remember going in when I was a locum for him one day and this guy had anticipated and said that he would go for the cell thanks. But he was very relieved to see me and said: “Look I feel a little bit embarrassed now that I’ve opted for a night in the cell. If I’d known you were on—you are pretty slick at taking blood—I would have opted for the blood test and it would have saved me the night.” However the relevance is this: today we do have pretty accurate breath testing. Of course if someone opts against having an evidential blood test as well then I think it is quite right and proper that the breath test is indeed taken. 
There is the issue of those who have bad veins and it is quite true that some number do have bad veins whether they are those who take drugs all the time or perhaps someone on dialysis therapy. I can think of Joeli Vidiri the great rugby player who sadly is on dialysis treatment and has just about no vein in his body for a blood test other than the jugular. Quite clearly it would be inappropriate to take a blood test if that was relevant in that case. 
So we see here a bill that is elegant in its simplicity and absolutely relevant in terms of the mechanism for the remedy to forgoing the blood test when someone opts not to have it. I can say that I am delighted to support it. I hope indeed that New Zealand First members who sounded as though they were wavering a little bit a moment or two ago when I— 
Brendan Horan 
: No there was never a waver. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: They are not wavering? That is good. There is definitely support coming from New Zealand First and Mr Horan can guarantee that his party will be supporting it. I am very glad to hear that. This is an excellent bill. Scott Simpson is to be congratulated. I certainly commend it to the House.