Muller Todd; Dean JacquiSUNSCREEN (PRODUCT SAFETY STANDARD) BILLFirst ReadingTODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): I move That the Sunscreen (Product Safety Standard) Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Health Committee to consider the bill.In 1987 I was holidaying in Taupō when my 18-year-old younger self decided that I'd had enough of being pale and it was time to embrace the sun's rays and be a little more cooler in my own mind. Kieran McAnulty: How'd you go?TODD MULLER: So I decided—thank you Kieran McAnulty I knew it wouldn't take long! I decided to embrace the sun's rays in the elevation of Taupō for most of the day and woke up the next morning with my face entirely blistered—completely blistered—and my back only marginally less so. I am reminded of this youthful indiscretion every six months when I catch up with Dr Paul Salmon from the Tauranga SkinCentre as he regularly books me in for Mohs surgery to remove basal cell and other skin cancers. Of course my father had a melanoma himself but was lucky enough to have it caught for it runs in my family.Sunscreen is important for me. It is important for my two red-headed daughters and my son who hopefully won't repeat my mistake. Sunscreen is important to me. What the label says on the sunscreen is important to me—that if it says SPF 50 then I have an expectation that it will be SPF 50. That's why I am so proud to be standing here this evening presenting for the first reading the Sunscreen (Product Safety Standard) Bill.Now I'm sure most in the House would have been somewhat surprised when they saw this bill and would have thought But surely we have a sunscreen standard in this country." and we do. It is a shared standard with Australia. It is the Australian New Zealand Sunscreen Standard AS/NZS 2604:2012 which comprehensively prescribes the test methods for both broad spectrum and water resistant sunscreen products and their labelling requirements. But you see in Australia the standard is mandatory meaning a product cannot go on to the shelf without meeting the standard. But in New Zealand compliance is voluntary. And the result is that many sunscreens do not meet the promise of the label. They say they are broad spectrum they say they are SPF 50 or a similarly high number but actually when tested they do not deliver that claim.In 2019 Consumer New Zealand tested 20 sunscreens and nine products did not meet the SPF claim on the label. In 2020 they tested a further 10 sunscreens and five failed the SPF claim. Now it's one thing for me to be lying on a beach in Taupō trying to be cool and being accountable ultimately for that error—in a blistered face and an ongoing life of removal of skin cancers from my body—but it is quite another thing for New Zealanders to go and buy an SPF 50 on the promise that it will protect them only for that sunscreen not to be delivering against that standard. Quite frankly that anomaly needs to be fixed.So let's talk to the bill itself. It's not particularly complex—it's very very simple. The bill requires the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to recommend the setting of mandatory regulation under section 29 of the Fair Trading Act 1986 prescribing a product safety standard for sunscreen products—that's the first thing it requires. Secondly the bill expressly states that this is to be the NZS—the New Zealand standard—2604:2012 or any New Zealand standard substituted for that standard. There is work under way—almost being concluded actually—for that standard to be updated so that would automatically become the new standard in these regulations. That is largely it. If you look at the reference in this bill to section 29 it is very clear: section 29 of the Fair Trading Act states "Product safety standards (1) The Governor-General may from time to time on the recommendation of the Minister by Order in Council make regulations in respect of goods of any description or any class or classes of goods prescribing for the purpose of preventing or reducing the risk of injury to any person a product safety standard". In the second subsection "(2) The Governor-General may from time to time on the recommendation of the Minister by Order in Council make regulations [that sets]: (a) an official standard or an official standard with such additions or variations as are specified in the regulations is a product safety standard:". So the standard that is a voluntary compliance currently will be put in the Fair Trading Act as an obligation on manufacturers. That is in my view a way to strengthen consumer protections immediately.Now I do have to acknowledge that there has been work under way by this Government in the therapeutic products regime and also in the natural products regime with a hope to be able to bring a new refreshed framework to the House sometime in the next year. Now it is probable that in time that new regime will reflect on how to treat sunscreen but we all know that that is likely—the Minister himself has said that that is many months away before it would be presented in the House and then it would have to run through the obvious select committee process. This small change to the Fair Trading Act means that this summer New Zealanders can have greater confidence in the efficacy of sunscreens that they buy in New Zealand. Right now this House through supporting this bill can make that change and give effect to it.I don't just stand here as someone who has a personal interest and I guess some negative impact of not following the right approach in terms of protecting oneself from the sun. I obviously stand here as a father with children who are particularly fair-skinned and exposed in that context but I also stand here on behalf of the many New Zealanders who have expressed their deep concern at the fact that sunscreens are simply not delivering the protection that they expected they would deliver when they bought them and applied them not only to themselves but also to their children. I also stand here on behalf of groups who have written to me in support: Cancer Society of New Zealand Cosmetics New Zealand Albinism New Zealand Kylie Findlay and 1329 others who have a petition in front of the Health Committee at the moment Melanoma Network of New Zealand and many other individuals who I won't read out over the last few weeks.This is not a detailed dense bill; it is a precise forensic addition to the Fair Trading Act to ensure that the sunscreen that we purchase in this country has greater efficacy and that consumers have greater protection and I would hope that this is a bill that this whole House can support to select committee to further refine and debate. Thank you very much.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to."