Nash StuartHon STUART NASH (Minister of Police): Let me acknowledge that every single death on our roads caused by drug-driving is an absolute tragedy. I acknowledge the pain and harm and heartache caused to friends family and loved ones. Because of that I am sad that the previous member who spoke on this bill the Hon Dr Nick Smith has got so political about such an important issue. The previous member said that his greatest regret is that it's taken so long to get a bill to this House. Well can I remind this House that the previous member was in a Cabinet for nine years that did nothing about this issue. He knew about this issue.The other thing I would say is that member was a member of a Cabinet that instructed a former transport Minister to bring a paper to his Cabinet that he was in. They didn't. They did nothing about an issue that that member knew about for a long long time. So instead of criticising this Government that member should take a good hard look in the mirror. He could have done exactly what we have finally got round to doing.I would just like to start off by saying that in my role as a Minister of Police it has been a real privilege and a pleasure to work with the Hon Julie Anne Genter to get this bill to the House. We have heard that drug-driving is a serious road safety issue and in 2019 around 30 percent of all crashes involved a driver found to have drugs in their system. That's a hundred Kiwis who lost their life last year in drug-driving crashes. The international research shows that consuming drugs and in particular combining drug use with alcohol can impair driving ability in a number of ways including slower reaction times increased risk-taking and causing fatigue. All significantly increase the chances of accidents causing injury and death.The Government is committed to reducing road trauma associated with drug-driving. This is reflected in the Road to Zero road safety strategy being extremely competently rolled out by Minister Genter. While we have already had a regime to enforce drug-driving we can strengthen our approach to further deter people from engaging in this high-risk behaviour and to remove drug-impaired drivers from our roads.It's quite alarming that only 26 percent of New Zealanders think that they will be caught drug-driving versus 60 percent of Kiwis who think they will be caught drunk-driving. This needs to improve if we want to see a reduction in drug-driving - related trauma. Hence we are going to go very hard against those who drive while impaired on drugs. The Government's Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill will introduce a compulsory random roadside oral fluid testing regime. The regime aims to reduce drug-impaired driving through highly visible high-volume enforcement with certain and swift sanctions—the critical elements required for deterrence. The majority of submitters supported the introduction of oral fluid testing and a zero tolerance presence-based approach to roadside drug testing.Let me talk a little bit about the proposed regime.Chris Bishop: Oh God.Hon STUART NASH: It will allow police officers—you're not interested in this Mr Bishop?Chris Bishop: No.Hon STUART NASH: Not interested at all. Well there you go. That's what we have faced for a long long time—no interest in this issue whatsoever. The proposed regime will allow police officers to require drivers to randomly undertake oral fluid testing similar to the current random drink-driving testing. A driver who produces two oral fluid tests—positive tests—will receive an infringement notice but has an option to elect an evidential blood test. Levels for drugs in blood will be prescribed in legislation above which a driver will be liable for a criminal offence. These levels are being determined based on evidence from an independent panel of experts. This independent panel of experts was due to report back this month however due to COVID and the inability for that panel to meet the work has been delayed.When the previous speaker said Will New Zealanders have the ability to submit in this?" Absolutely. A Supplementary Order Paper will be submitted to select committee which will allow Kiwis to have their say on this. That is the reason why the limits are not in the bill at the moment because of the interruption due to COVID.Hon Dr Nick Smith: You had three years.Hon STUART NASH: You had nine years. An independent expert panel has been established. They are experts in this field and they will come up with recommendations based on international evidence. A range of issues will be canvassed during the select committee process. This includes how some of the issues raised in section 7 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act report could be mitigated liability for the cost of blood testing for infringement offences and continued inclusion of the power to allow for criminal limits to be added and amended through Order in Council after the bill is enacted.We intend that the bill will be enacted before August 2021 and implementation will begin 12 months after enactment. Police will shortly be issuing a request for information to the market for oral fluid testing devices. The devices will be procured once the bill is passed and funding is confirmed and we anticipate it taking a year to procure the devices import them into the country and train front-line staff in their use. It is expected that 33000 tests will be delivered in the first year of use rising to 66000 tests by year three. Police has operational discretion to determine the most effective approach to introducing oral fluid testing.The regime described in this bill impacts upon some of the rights and freedoms set out in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990: the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure the right not to be arbitrarily detained and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. This is not surprising given proposals to introduce or change drink and drug-driving laws over the decades have had similar impacts. The proposed regime is justified given the importance of the objective of the bill to improve road safety outcomes.The bill also includes several safeguards to help protect people's rights and freedoms. Drivers will only be issued an offence after failing two consecutive oral fluid tests. This requirement reduces the probability of a false positive result. Drivers will be able to elect a blood test to conclusively identify the level of a drug in their system. The bill also introduces a criteria for the type of oral fluid testing devices used. Before approving devices as outlined by Minister Genter the Minister of Police must have regard to their accuracy and be satisfied that they will return a positive result only if the device detects the presence of a qualifying drug at a level that indicates recent use.As introduced the bill does not include any details about the level at which a driver becomes liable for an infringement offence. Introducing an infringement offence threshold to the bill could act as an additional safeguard. Ministers have therefore agreed to consider whether these thresholds should be added to the bill at select committee stage.Finally the message I want to send to all New Zealanders is if you drive under the influence of drugs we will catch you so don't. Thank you."