Andersen GinnyHon GINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Labour supports this bill because it makes our roads safer and it's important that we do that in a consistent way right around the country. I think it's important just to correct the record though and to make sure we're all debating the right thing here. The main hold-up for this legislation coming into law is the fact that technology has not been able to deliver the certainty required for a regime with penalties and demerits and consequences to be attached with it. So what this regime delivers it works with what the technology is able to do with a back-up test of a lab test. Fundamentally the issue here is that the current saliva test for drug-driving can throw a false negative or a false positive. That is what the research shows—that you cannot be sure when you're testing on roadside with saliva what it is that you're exactly testing for and it's possible that it can throw a false negative. So that is why in this system—and we agree with the system—that's being introduced there are two tests. If someone is pulled over and tested by a police officer and they test positive they are required to do a second test—a second positive. If they test negative they're free to go. So on that second positive test at that point in time it is required that that test go back to the lab and only if that lab test backs up the saliva test does the infringement and then the demerits take place. The interesting point we've got—or we will have if we see this legislation rolled out—is that after that second positive test the driver will be required to not use their vehicle for 12 hours. In parts of rural New Zealand it could be challenging for some parts of New Zealand and also potentially after those two positive tests the lab test still could come back negative and so you may have drivers here who have been prohibited from driving for 12 hours but yet don't receive an infringement and don't receive demerits. But on balance we believe that if it makes our roads safer that that risk is balanced it's still OK to move forward. One of the interesting areas has already been touched on and that is impairment. What it states in this bill is that the qualified drug is at a level that indicates recent use" if that drug has been detected in the driver in the lab test and so that is quite different to being impaired. So there's going to have to be some decisions made from a scientific point of view in the lab as to how recent that drug use was and whether that would have been a factor in impairment. The other point to consider is the fact that this testing process identifies families of drugs. So for example if you're talking about opioids some people will be potentially on prescription opioids like tramadol—which is a synthetic form of morphine—or even morphine or codeine. Those are forms of opioids and so if someone is taking a legal opioid that may turn up in a lab and be perceived as being heroin which is also an opioid. So it'll be interesting to see how the lab deciphers—given the fact of its ability to do that—those families of drugs. Even more interestingly now that pseudoephedrine is now available over the counter for our cold and prescription purposes—pseudoephedrine is part of the amphetamine family which methamphetamine is also a part of. So it'll be interesting to note how we decipher legal prescription drugs from those illegal black market drugs and how that works through this process. It will be very important to make sure that New Zealanders who have taken a legal prescription drug have done so well and were not impaired when they were driving and to make sure that they are not unnecessary penalised through this new process. I think that this is a good step towards making our roads safer. It's interesting that the National Party still want to raise the speed limits outside schools but they're quite keen on making sure our roads are safer. I wish they'd apply that methodology right across our roads in New Zealand. But overall this is a good step. Both parties have worked on it; multiple parties have seen that. There are still some flaws in the system but we think that on balance having a way to detect drug-driving in New Zealand is important and hopefully it sends a strong message out to people that you are not to take drugs or alcohol if you want to be in charge of a motor vehicle on New Zealand roads."