van de Molen Tim; Rurawhe AdrianTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Mr Speaker. A roadside drug testing regime could already have been in place for a year now and when we think about how many lives are lost each year that's pretty disappointing.Ginny Andersen: Or nine years ago.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: I hear already members on the other side starting to interject. I think it's appropriate to reflect on where we are now: the night before Parliament finishes for this term. Three years this Parliament has been conducting its business and here we are the final night before we finish and we're seeing this bill put forward.When I came into this place in 2017 at the start of this parliamentary term as a new MP I was very enthusiastic. I still am—Barbara Kuriger: You still are.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: I still am. Thank you Ms Kuriger; I agree. I came here confident that this was the place where we could make real change meaningful change for New Zealanders. What we've seen with this piece of legislation with this topic is that sadly it's been turned into a political football and we've seen the other side of the House choosing to manipulate this in a manner that has resulted in Kiwis suffering. I think that's the most disappointing part of this. This could already be law right now; yet it's not. Why not? Because the Government didn't agree with it. The Government changed their mind. Mr Ball just said Well it should have been in in 2012. The same technology exists now. We disagree with Alastair Scott's bill." Well if that's the case if that argument is what he truly believes how can he now stand up and support this bill in its current form if he's saying that there is no change to what's been presented here in this piece of legislation to what was put forward by Mr Scott member's bill in November 2018? It's a total contradiction and does not stand up to scrutiny whatsoever.Alastair Scott member's bill in November 2018 was the perfect opportunity for all sides of this House to come together to unite on a really important topic for New Zealanders. We're talking about saving lives on the roads. We all know there are far too many lives lost every year on New Zealand's roads. The Green Party—I think it was their initiative—have even come out saying they want a road to zero. Sadly their actions on this type of legislation have just demonstrated that's an empty slogan. They could have had a meaningful impact on reducing the deaths on our roads from drugged drivers if they'd supported that member's bill. That could have been law by now. We could already have been probably 12 months into that law and yet we're not. Here we are having the first reading on a bill that doesn't actually outline any of the parameters in terms of the levels of testing required.The cynic would say "Well it's an opportunity for them to say they've done something just prior to having a referendum on legalising marijuana." Because you can absolutely guarantee that people around the country want to know this sort of detail. I'm hearing it back in the Waikato. People are constantly asking me "If we legalise marijuana what happens on the roads? What happens in the workplace?"—some fundamental concerns that they have. This I guess is a cynical attempt to try and address—or show that this Government is finally looking at it. Actually it reminds me a bit of Denise Lee's pay equity bill that she put forward a couple of years ago as well—the same scenario: a member's bill put forward by someone on this side of the House opposed by that side of the House simply because it wasn't their bill. They've now finally put through their own pay equity bill which they introduced around the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage—well there's a headline-grabbing effort if ever there was one—whereas they could have actually supported that bill.It is disappointing when I think about the number of people who come here to do the right thing to see that petty party politics takes precedence over safety and progress for New Zealanders on really key issues like this.Barbara Kuriger: We did that other one at a quarter to twelve at night.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: That's right; that pay equity one actually was late at night as well. I think the key issue here is that sadly the other side will just not accept that members on this side of the House can have good ideas and put forward good pieces of legislation. So that's really disappointing to see.The Green Party I think it was Ms Genter also said that bringing in roadside testing—this is one of the arguments as to why they didn't support our earlier bill—was too intrusive. What a slap in the face for every New Zealand family who has lost someone they love as a result of a drugged driver. Too intrusive to do a roadside test? What a disgraceful comment from that Minister. Then we saw Mr Nash saying that this side of the House was not interested. Again it was just petty politics trying to make a point in his contribution. Here we are now passing this bill—it should have happened a long time ago; we're finally doing it now—and he still gets up and tries to make a jab at this side of the House not being interested in saving lives when clearly we'd introduced a member's bill in November 2018. Subsequently the Hon Dr Nick Smith sought leave to introduce it again and again and again and each time leave was denied by that side of the House. So I think it's a bit rich for them to be standing up now and trying to claim credit for bringing in a piece of legislation that should already be law and claiming the glory for that this close to the end of Parliament.So we do support this bill. It should already be law as I've said. On that side of the House we continue to hear these cynical comments at a quarter past 10 at night.Hon Member: Angry—why are you so angry?TIM VAN DE MOLEN: The member on that side talks about anger and I think we have seen too much anger from Government members this evening. So I think it would be important for them to reflect on that when we are now at this position where we're going to pass this at its first reading and start to make some progress. A cynical effort by the Government to claim some credit in the dying hours of their time in office.So on that basis we support this bill. We support it on principle as the Hon Dr Nick Smith says. On that basis we look forward to seeing it progress. Again the Government just voted down the opportunity to tighten up that select committee process shorten up that window to allow this to be brought into law and then they try to say they're doing the right thing for New Zealand. Well sadly they're not. On this side we're committed to that. We tried to get this through earlier. We'll support it now because it's the right thing to do. We just need to get it done. Thank you.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Before I give the next call I'm going to interrupt the member. Some of the quality of the interjections is not good enough. Rare reasonable and relevant and please do not use the personal pronoun "you" as it brings the Speaker into the debate. I call Louisa Wall."