Luxton Jo; Rurawhe AdrianJO LUXTON (Labour—Rangitata): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's with real pleasure that I rise in support of this bill in the name of Todd Muller the Sunscreen (Product Safety Standard) Bill. Mr Muller I just want to commend you for bringing this piece of legislation to the House. It is a hugely important piece of legislation and actually one that I can't believe has never been brought to this House before. I'm not and have not been a member of the select committee that heard the submissions and things for this piece of legislation but I can imagine it would have been a really interesting process and I was quite surprised when I was doing some reading about this piece of legislation and with various conversations I've had and heard about this that it wasn't as straightforward as one thought it might be. I did find that quite surprising and quite interesting. I had just assumed that you could say in this piece of legislation that the sunscreen product had to do what it said it did and that that would be the end of it. However it was with interest that I read some of the issues that did arise. So thank you Mr Muller for bringing this to the House. I'd also like to acknowledge the select committee that have worked on this and Dr Liz Craig who is the chair of the Health Committee. It's important also never to forget to acknowledge and thank those that submitted. I think there were 36 submissions on this piece of legislation and all were wholeheartedly in favour. There was absolutely no one against it. There was some discussion around things that they didn't necessarily agree on completely but they wholeheartedly supported this piece of legislation. When I think about growing up as a young child here in New Zealand sunscreen was not something that was really—well back in my day—hugely popular or even used. My memory as a child of sun protection was zinc—zinc across the cheeks and across the nose—and it's interesting how certain items and smells you associate with summer and things like that. So it was zinc for me as a child and then as I got older it was the baby oil and the coconut oil that came out—sitting on the school seat at lunchtime and roasting ourselves in it. I am quite a fair-skinned person so you can just imagine how that turned out. I never turned out this beautiful golden-brown tanned colour that I had anticipated. I always went red and peeled however.The members of the select committee heard in a submission from the Cancer Society that there are approximately 90000 new cases of melanoma in New Zealand each year and around 500 people die from melanoma each year and sadly my stepmother was one of those 500 who passed away just three months ago from cancer initially from a melanoma. So it's very very important that we encourage people to use sunscreen and that the sunscreen does what it says it will do. Now we heard that there was some conversation within the select committee about—and forgive me Mr Speaker but I am going to go to my information here because it's quite technical and members have mentioned it before. As the bill was introduced it did require the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to recommend that mandatory regulations be set to prescribe a product safety standard for sunscreen products and we did hear that that would in essence have the effect of making this mandatory. In Australia it is mandatory that the standard is met but here it's voluntary which I find extremely surprising. But I understand that that was a little bit tricky in so far as within that particular Act it was more around things such as for example minimising risk to children from the types of pyjamas that they wear and what might happen should they be near heat or melt and what might happen to that child's skin as a result of that. It's something that's inherent and part of that product whereas sunscreen doesn't necessarily have something in it that causes harm to the person directly; it's the sun rays that do that. So that was a little bit tricky but there have been some changes made that accommodate that and make sure that it sits where it needs to sit. There was also some conversation I understand around the definition of sunscreen and that's not something I would have ever anticipated would be a huge topic of conversation within this legislation because I just assumed sunscreen is sunscreen is sunscreen—right? So there have been some changes made within that so that it's defined as being something that is primarily to protect you from the ultraviolet rays of the sun which is interesting I thought because I had assumed that that's what sunscreen was anyway. Then we heard Mr Muller talk before about the fact that if this bill came into force on the day after enactment there was some concern around those retailers who perhaps had stock on their shelves and what have you and things like that. So the committee did come to some form of an agreement there whereby they would allow up to 18 months for retailers to be able to move the stock that they currently had. I also agree with Mr Muller that that is actually quite generous. I think that this is something that we actually do need to ensure is acted on as quickly as possible. However that is the agreement that the committee came to and it is what they have added into this piece of legislation. As Mr Muller said he's very proud to bring this piece of legislation to the House and actually rightly so. It's put a stake in the ground which is something that he also said and it's quite apt that this has come before us prior to the summer months which will remind us of how important it is to use sunscreen. Unfortunately it's not going to be ready for us this summer. However in a couple of summers' time it will be all good to go. One of the things I did want to also talk about was the fact that—with the note that I made when Mr Muller was talking—he acknowledged that this is probably an interim measure at this point. But it does get us through to the point where we can introduce the piece of legislation that the various members have talked about—the Therapeutic Products Bill—which I acknowledge Mr Muller has not mentioned. They did not bring it to the House and it has not come to the House yet but I can assure that member that it is absolutely definitely coming. One of the other things that I wanted to talk about just briefly—as I come back to find my appropriate piece of paper where I've made some notes—is that we need to have absolute faith when we purchase a sunscreen whether it's SPF50 or SPF30 that it does exactly what it says it will do. When I think that here in New Zealand we have some of the worst cases of melanoma and the harshest sun—harsher than in other places around the world—it's something that has been long overdue. I really acknowledge Mr Muller again for bringing this piece of legislation to the House and I absolutely wholeheartedly commend this bill to the House. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members it's come time for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break. The House will resume at 7 p.m. Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.