Genter Julie AnneLAND TRANSPORT (DRUG DRIVING) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Associate Minister of Transport): I move That the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Transport and Infrastructure Committee to consider the bill.This Government is committed to improving road safety outcomes on New Zealand's roads and improving safety lies at the heart of this bill. Over the last five years the number of people killed and seriously injured in crashes where a driver has consumed drugs other than alcohol has risen. Some of those are legal prescription medications that have an impairing impact and some are currently illegal. It is clear that our current approach to deterring impaired driving from drugs is not preventing this harmful behaviour. A driver who has consumed drugs not only places themselves at risk; they also risk the lives of other road users. Last year alone over 100 people were killed in crashes where a driver was found to have drugs other than alcohol in their system. This represents about 30 percent of all road deaths last year. These are preventable tragedies and we need to do more to stop drivers who are under the influence of drugs from choosing to drive.Enhanced drug-driver testing is a key action in the Road to Zero road safety strategy this Government announced at the end of last year. This bill signifies our commitment to keeping road users safe from the problem of drug-driving. The bill establishes a regulatory framework to enable a random roadside oral fluid testing regime. What that means is that drivers if they consume impairing drugs will be able to be stopped and swabbed with a saliva test. If they test positive for the presence of drugs twice they will receive an infringement. Currently drug-drivers do face serious criminal penalties if they're caught but they often aren't. This bill will allow police to test drivers for the presence of impairing drugs anywhere anytime just as they do for alcohol. The roadside oral fluid testing regime will initially test for six drugs or drug classes and these are THC the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis; methamphetamine; benzodiazepines; MDMA also known as ecstasy; opiates; and cocaine. These drugs have been selected based on a combination of their elevated crash risk and the prevalence of their use by drivers in New Zealand. The bill proposes that drivers who fail two consecutive oral fluid tests at the roadside will face the same infringement penalty as the drink-driving infringement penalty.It was important to me that the bill includes safeguards to ensure the regime is administered fairly and doesn't unintentionally criminalise or present an infringement to someone who is not impaired or who hasn't used drugs so there will be cut-off thresholds built into the devices correlated with recent use. This means drivers who have very very low levels of drugs in their system which are not likely to be impairing will not be penalised. Drivers who fail a first test will be tested again to avoid the risk of incorrectly penalising drivers and drivers will be able to elect to take an evidential blood test to dispute the result of the oral fluid test. Drivers will have a medical defence available where they have consumed drugs in line with their prescriptions.This new oral fluid testing regime will sit alongside the existing compulsory impairment test. The compulsory impairment test can still be used when police have good cause to suspect a driver has consumed drugs or if an oral fluid test shows the presence of more than one drug. However there will be restrictions on when police officers can switch between an oral fluid test and a compulsory impairment test. This means police can still identify and penalise drivers who have consumed drugs that the oral fluid devices are not able to test for and remove those drivers from the road.The bill retains and introduces some situations where a driver would be required or be able to elect to have a blood test. These evidential blood tests will be able to test for all qualifying drugs as defined in the Land Transport Act 1998. In addition to creating an infringement offence for failing two consecutive oral fluid tests the new regime will introduce both infringement and criminal offences for drivers who've consumed drugs identified through a blood test depending on the amount of the drug identified in the driver's system. The bill proposes that drivers that are injured and have a blood sample taken are also assessed against the criminal limits rather than only penalised for the presence of class A drugs.The bill also recognises the significantly higher road safety risk posed by drivers who consume multiple impairing substances such as drugs and alcohol or two drugs. We know that road safety risks are higher when drugs are combined and they are the highest when drugs are combined with alcohol. To further deter this high risk behaviour this bill introduces combination infringement and criminal offences. Drivers who are found to have consumed more than one substance will face higher penalties both at the roadside through the oral testing regime and following evidential blood testing.Criminal limits will be set in legislation for some drugs including the most prevalent drugs used by drivers in New Zealand and blood tests will be used to determine which drivers are liable for a criminal offence. The intention is to align criminal limits for drugs with the equivalent blood-alcohol limits used in the existing drink-driving regime. A driver will be liable for a criminal offence if their blood test indicates that they've consumed drugs above the criminal limit. Below this level a driver will receive an infringement offence. An independent expert panel on drug-driving will advise the Government on the setting of drug blood limits that will establish the criminal threshold. The criminal limits will be included in the legislation before it is enacted. The expert panel is continuing its work and I expect that the criminal limits will be available to the select committee and the public to scrutinise alongside the bill.The bill also includes a power that allows the criminal limits to be added and amended by Order in Council. I will be interested to hear the select committee's view on whether or not this power should remain once the initial set of criminal limits have been added to the bill. To make sure drivers aren't incentivised to consume less prevalent or new drugs that will not have criminal limits the bill ensures that drivers who have consumed potentially impairing qualifying drugs without criminal limits set are still captured by the regime. The penalty that they would be liable for would depend on whether or not the driver had failed a compulsory impairment test.The regime described in this bill does impact on some of the rights and freedoms set out in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. This includes 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. On balance I believe that the proposed regime is justified given the importance of the objective of the bill to improve road safety outcomes and to save lives.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 includes criteria for the type of oral fluid testing devices used. Before approving devices the Minister of Police must have regard to their accuracy be satisfied that they will return a positive result only if the device detects a presence of qualifying drug at a level that indicates recent use and as introduced the bill does not include 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 the select committee stage.The bill introduces an oral fluid testing regime with a number of complexities that I expect will receive substantial public interest and benefit from scrutiny through the select committee process. In particular I am interested to hear if the select committee has any recommendations on whether the bill should include a requirement for drivers to pay for the cost of an evidential blood test when they are found to be liable for only an infringement level offence.This bill is about addressing the increasing prevalence of drugs in fatal crashes on our roads. I'd really like to thank the Minister Police Stuart Nash for the excellent collaborative work that his office and my office and our officials have put in to get the bill to the stage where we can have a first reading. We're absolutely committed to improving the road safety outcomes in New Zealand. Too many people die and are seriously injured on our roads each year and this level of trauma is not acceptable. Addressing the problem of drug-driving is one of the key steps to reducing some of these avoidable tragedies. I commend the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill to the House.