SpeechDARROCH BALL (NZ First): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First in support of the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill. I don't intend to take too much of a long call but the first thing I want to do is just read out an article a Herald article and then I'd like Dr Nick Smith to try and guess what date it was written. The title is Tests reveal most crash drivers had taken drugs." It says "More than half the drivers taken to hospital after causing a crash were found to have had drugs in their system a study has found. The Ministry of Transport study used blood samples taken from 453 drivers who caused crashes. Drugs were detected in the systems of 258 drivers analysis by the … ESR". And they said "We think the majority of drivers driving with illicit drugs are pretty safe from detection unfortunately. … They may be caught. But the roadside saliva testing really sends a clear message that if you drug and drive you could be randomly caught. But Associate Minister of Transport Simon Bridges said the Government would wait for saliva testing technology to improve before using it." This is the story. It says "More than half the drivers taken to hospital after causing a crash were found to have drugs in their system." in 2012.In fact the information that was given to the National Party at the time in 2012 was recommending drug-driving saliva testing. So it seems pretty ironic to me that we have Dr Nick Smith standing up on that side of the House and so is Chris Bishop saying this has taken a while to come to fruition. Well they've got that one right—2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 and then it goes 2017. Is that five or six years? It was five or six years under the National Government and they've got the temerity to stand up in this House and say we're taking too long when we've spent two years working hard to get it right in a third of the time that they did. They did nothing. They did zero when they had all the information in front of them.And then on top of that what was worse was Nick Smith stood up and said why didn't we support Alastair Scott's bill which by the way was a member's bill that was put in in 2018 immediately after the National Party had just got out of Government. So if it was such a great idea for Nick Smith in 2018 and the rest of the National Party to stand up and demand that this side of the House support a member's bill that was just put into the ballot why did they not do anything over the six years that they had the chance to from 2012 all the way through to the 2017?Perhaps the next members of the National Party that want to stand up—and try to explain that without using the bullet points if it's taking too long without sounding ridiculous. Then Dr Smith tries to move to truncate the select committee process after he lambasts this side for trying to add the thresholds as a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) in the select committee where the select committee needs to address those technicalities where the public can submit on those technicalities and those additions to the SOP and especially the advisers and the experts. So in no way do any of the arguments that Nick Smith or Chris Bishop are talking about have any legs or make any sense.We are obviously supporting this bill because drug-driving's a problem. We've heard of the numbers of crashes that are caused by drivers with drugs in their system is increasing. It's just common sense that we need to have a system in place to be able to detect those people to create deterrence to ensure that they don't do it again but then that no other person thinks they can get away with it and continue to do it. But also most importantly to make the roads safer and to stop these crashes and these deaths that are caused by drug-driving. Of course you want to do that. But we need to ensure and we have got to a point where we have ensured that not only is the technology up to date and correct and usable but that the legislation that we're putting forward is workable and that's what a responsible Government does. If there's any issues from the National Party about it they just need to ask themselves why they didn't do it when they had the information back in 2012. Because the exact same reason why they didn't do anything about it is the exact same reason why we voted against Alastair Scott's bill because it wasn't workable. We needed to ensure that we had the technology and the time and the correct legislation to make it work not just come up with a piece of legislation that we think might work and put a title on it and make a political football out of it—what the National Party unfortunately has.New Zealand First is looking forward to this piece of legislation going through to the select committee specifically because it is a very technical bill and because there's going to be a very important part added to it in the select committee that we need to ensure is robustly identified and submitted on by experts. One of the things moving forward from New Zealand First's perspective is actually the question of whether any illegal drugs in the system at all should have any limit at all. The fact that they're illegal means that they shouldn't be in anyone's system in the first place. So I think that needs to have a wider conversation at select committee and through the submissions and we'll be looking forward to that. And just lastly a question—and I'm sure it will be addressed through the select committee—is on the actual fee for the blood test scheme. I know that I'm not over the detail completely but I am aware that it's a lot more expensive than the drink-driving blood test a lot more complicated. We're just looking particularly in regards to the equity issues surrounding the fact that the driver must pay for those blood tests. It's a very important bill and New Zealand First supports it wholeheartedly. We think that the Minister has done a very good job and this Government has done a very good job in ensuring that we've got a piece of legislation that is workable and in a timely fashion and we commend it to the House. Thank you."