Uffindell SamSAM UFFINDELL (National—Tauranga): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's good to be able to rise and speak on the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Hazardous Substances Assessments) Amendment Bill at the third reading. As noted this is something that we do support. It makes sense to be able to do this as some of my colleagues and people across the House have commented on this morning. We noted that the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is responsible for managing a significant number of hazardous substances and whether they go through the agriculture or horticulture area construction right across the many areas of New Zealand industry there will be hazardous substances that are used and as a result of that there will be potentially negative externalities for people who have to deal with those for the environment for animals for our health. So being able to respond dynamically and quickly is something that's very important.We note that the EPA needs some amendments to enable quicker uptake of what is being used overseas to assess hazardous substances and make decisions about what should be approved and what should no longer be approved as new information comes to light. However currently the way of doing this is quite cumbersome it's quite time-consuming and as a result it's also costly. So you have there a mix of inefficiencies you have expenses and at the end of the line you have people you have the environment and you have businesses taking on costs losing time and exposing themselves to potentially more hazardous situations than they otherwise should have to. So amending the regulatory framework to be able to allow New Zealand to be more dynamic in that area is very important and as a result we will be commending this.It makes sense as science progresses that we will see an increase in new chemicals being produced and manufactured and available for use. So having a regime that enables them to be brought into the New Zealand environment is important. There is a lot of good information out there and a lot of good regulators out there as well that have done a lot of background work on stuff and to be able to leverage that I think is definitely in New Zealand's best interest. I think this bill understands that and goes a fair way to addressing that.My colleague Simon O'Connor did raise a point around what other regimes we would view as comparable or like-minded or want to utilise in order to progress certain hazardous substances. I think that's a fairly good point from him. Ideally they would be jurisdictions that have similar regimes to us similar tests and controls to enable us to have that reassurance that the chemicals and substances that we are allowing for use in New Zealand are of a standard that we would expect. I think we've probably got a fair bit of literature and also commonality over previous or other arrangements where we can look to leverage off that.There has been some concern raised about the current environment and how it can delay our responsiveness. I think that's really important because we do live in a dynamic world and we do live in an environment where other countries are also understanding that and they will have amended their regimes. So to see New Zealand now in that mould is very pleasing. I think it's a good idea and we should be looking to apply this beyond what we're doing here to allow us to leverage off what other people have done in this space not just when it comes to hazardous substances but you could look across other medical devices. We only need to cast our minds back to the COVID environment where we probably weren't as nimble as we should have been to utilise what other healthcare regulators overseas were doing in regards to testing and different equipment that could be used. You could also apply it to what is happening with Gib board and whether some standards that are being used overseas could also be applicable here.But it is good to see that that is happening in this space. So on that note I have reiterated and I will continue to that I think this is a good way to utilise the expertise that exists overseas to help save New Zealand time and resources that frankly we don't have and to create a more dynamic hazardous substances regime. It will benefit industry. It will benefit the public. It will support timely and appropriate hazardous substances management for all communities to effectively derive greater benefit from. So on that note I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.