King Annette: Radiation Safety Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Radiation Safety Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 16 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:9018. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour): Again I am pleased to rise in support of the second health bill before this House today. This is another bill that went to the excellent Health Committee where some very good work was done on trying to understand this bill.Hon Member: Who’s on it?Hon ANNETTE KING: Who is on this committee? Of course there is myself and some others. There is Scott Simpson there is Barbara Kuriger and there is the excellent Poto Williams and Louisa Wall was on it at this time.Hon Member: Excellent members.Hon ANNETTE KING: It is a very very good committee. But this was quite a difficult bill because we had to understand some issues that were quite foreign to many of us when you got into the detail of it. I want to commend our officials who serviced this committee. They were excellent. They understood the bill. They could explain to us in layperson’s language what it meant how it would work and what we were changing.This bill replaces the old Radiation Protection Act of 1965. So you can see that it was a pretty old Act and it was in need of some change. One of the purposes of the bill is to enable New Zealand to meet its international obligations relating to radiation protection radiation safety and security and nuclear non-proliferation under a range of international treaties. We acknowledge the necessity to do this to update the legislation and to keep pace with technological changes because an awful lot has changed since 1965. In fact I can recall seeing my first programme on television in about 1962. You can have a look at how things have changed in that time. We have changed in terms of microwaves cell towers etc. There are lots of modern technology.I have to tell you that this bill is not about that which is why I commend my Supplementary Order Paper 140 to the Committee for consideration. This bill is called the Radiation Safety Bill and it is about ionising radiation. I am suggesting that we have a Supplementary Order Paper and a change of name to the Ionising Radiation Safety Bill. I will tell the Minister in the chair why we are doing that. There is and was some confusion as to what ionising radiation is and where it is regulated and what non-ionising radiation is. Can I just quickly tell the people who are listening what the difference is. But before I do that I just want to say that the suggestion for changing the name came from Louisa Wall and I want to acknowledge that she made the suggestion although the Supplementary Order Paper is in my name.Ionising radiation is high-energy radiation and includes X-rays alpha particles beta particles and gamma rays that have ionising capability and hence cause chemical or molecular changes to interacting bodies. Non-ionising radiation is electromagnetic energy. That includes laser lights electromagnetic fields and radio waves. So non-ionising radiation is from cell towers Wi-Fi microwave ovens ultraviolet tanning machines and power lines. It is not addressed in this bill. So when people thought that we were passing a bill on radiation safety the confusion was that we were including everything. We are not including everything. This is about ionising radiation. So I say to the Minister that it is not a big loss to the Government to actually name it as it is.Non-ionising radiation is not regulated under this legislation. It is controlled through standards. So that is the difference. Non-ionising radiation is done by standards; ionising radiation is done by the amendments that are being made to this bill. I will commend this Supplementary Order Paper to the Committee when we get to debating it.There was as I said some confusion around ionising and non-ionising radiation and I think it is important to point out to the Committee that the World Health Organization the pre-eminent body in terms of looking at health issues said with regard to public health risks posed by electromagnetic fields that the evidence is weakened by the methodological problems such as potential selection bias. In addition there are no accepted reasons to say that this could cause cancer. This is the non-ionising radiation. I say that because there was some confusion perhaps that if we do not include this maybe there is evidence saying that it would cause cancer. The World Health Organization says there is no such evidence.What the bill does is it introduces a number of things. As I said it does ensure that we meet our international obligations. But it also brings in a new regime for authorisations for individuals and organisations using radiation material. It puts in place quite a hefty fine regime for those who contravene their authorisation. In the case of an individual there is a fine not exceeding $100000 and in the case of a person or organisation other than an individual there is a fine not exceeding half a million dollars. There are enforcement officers who have the power to inspect places for reasons that are specified in the bill. The Director-General of Health as the chief executive officer of the Ministry of Health is responsible for administering this bill. The director-general must maintain a register of controlled radiation sources. The old council that is in place is replaced by a new council a Radiation Safety Advisory Council as opposed to a Radiation Protection Advisory Council. But all the existing members are reinstated and I think that is probably important because they are the people who know what they are doing.There is quite a lot in this bill. It has a number of parts and schedules. We support the bill. We think a lot of work has been done on it. I now see we are joined by another member of our officials who supported us at the select committee. Can I repeat our thanks for the excellent way our committee was serviced and the very broad knowledge that is held by the officials in this area of great expertise. None of us claimed that we had that expertise and we have been very well guided by our officials. The bill also covers the use transportation and disposal of ionising radiation—both man-made which is cobalt-60 and naturally occurring uranium—in quantities above a stated level.I do think that the changes that have been made—and the Minister has got a number on his Supplementary Order Paper which we support—bring our legislation right up to date. It brings us in line with our international conventions and requirements in treaties but it also brings us up to date in terms of New Zealand’s domestic approach. I have to say it has taken longer than an elephant having a baby to bring this bill to the House. We are talking years to get it to this stage so I think people will be pleased to see it passed and passed as soon as possible.The Labour Party supports this bill but I do say to the members opposite in the spirit of cooperation that we have had on this bill—I would urge members of the Government to vote for my Supplementary Order Paper. There is a very small change—changing the name from the Radiation Safety Bill to the Ionising Radiation Safety Bill. There is no confusion then for the public as to what is covered by legislation and what is covered by standards. Thank you.