van Velden BrookeBROOKE VAN VELDEN (Deputy Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the ACT Party this afternoon in support of the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill (No 2). There are two clear arguments that have been made about this particular legislation—one that's for it and one that's against it. The first argument is that changing the status quo will increase risk and increase harm to our young New Zealanders. The alternative view is that the status quo isn't acceptable and by changing it we will reduce harm and reduce risk for our young population.Now there are credible arguments on both sides but the ACT Party takes the view that we should ask a simple question and that is: should Parliament prohibit people voluntarily wanting to help each other in New Zealand? We say that we shouldn't prohibit that. That's what this bill is about—it's about volunteer organisations wanting to create a safer country for each other. So when you take those two arguments we fall on the side that informed choice is better that the status quo is not acceptable and that it could be better. That's because we understand the reality that young people every summer do go off to festivals. There are young people who take risks and we don't believe that one episode in someone's life of maybe wanting to rebel from their parents and have fun for a summer should impact their entire lives. We believe that if they are going to make a choice that their parents might not agree with that they should have informed choice because that is a safer reality for our young New Zealanders. We know every summer that people do go off to festivals and parents want to provide their children with support and advice from a young age about what is the right thing to do.You know we tell kids Don't take things from strangers." I've had this imprinted on my mind since I was a little girl that if anybody offered me something I shouldn't take it but people do. You know people grow up and they think "I'm invincible. I'm just going to take this thing. It can't possibly be me that will be adversely affected by this." I think we should allow for people to have an informed choice so that they don't ruin the rest of their lives by taking something that they didn't expect to be taking.We also know that there are parents out there that instil in their children that they shouldn't take drugs and it doesn't really matter to a child growing up whether or not they've been given as much advice as possible about the adverse effects of drugs. Some kids do just grow up thinking "This summer I'm going off with my friends and I'm wanting to be an adult and I'm wanting to have fun." and they might make a decision that would not be supported by their parents. But people do have to acknowledge that that is a reality.We want to make New Zealand a safer place for our young people. So the ACT Party is supporting this bill because we know that young people go off to festivals every summer. We want to make sure that adverse effects that risks and harm are minimised as much as possible for the people who might be taking those drugs. This bill is about allowing volunteers to help New Zealanders keep other New Zealanders safe. For that reason we commend it to the House."