SpeechDr ELIZABETH KEREKERE (Green): Kia ora. E te Māngai e te Whare tēnā rā koutou. On behalf of the Green Party and as a member of the Health Committee that heard this bill I rise to take a very short call in support of the Sunscreen (Product Safety Standard) Bill. It aims to improve the accuracy of claims about the sunscreen protection or SPF properties of sunscreen products. It is also personal for me as we have shared in previous ones. Fortunately my Māori blood has given me some protection from the fierce Aotearoa sun but that Irish blood is really really strong and so as an adult I've always used the highest-quality skin care and products that I could afford. So it was quite a shock when in my 40s the little lump—a little tiny thing that was in my eye—suddenly grew really really fast and turned out to be skin cancer. Now I wasn't well off and when I went to the doctors they said there was a minimum of six months a six-month waiting list but I would always probably be low priority. So I was able to thankfully loan the $2000 it cost to spend 15 minutes in a private clinic to get it removed and I'm thankful that it never came back. Of course it's not just my experience. As noted by the Cancer Society in its submission to our committee although skin cancer is largely preventable it's our most common cancer. Over 90000 new cases are diagnosed per year and around 500 New Zealanders dying. Contrary to popular opinion and certainly my thinking when I was young our brown skin does not protect us and although as our colleague Dr Reti said Māori and Pasifika have much-lower incidence of melanoma we get it worse when we do. We've got a higher risk of thick and more advanced melanoma with a poorer prognosis. So along with the personal costs substantial public healthcare resources are consumed in managing skin cancer. Of course prevention is better and I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Dermatological Society who recommended minimising time in the sun particularly when it's most intense; seeking shade; and wearing a broad-brimmed hat wraparound UV protective sunglasses and high ultra-protective clothing covering most of the skin. That is not how most New Zealanders spend the summer and we try really hard just to get our kids to do that. But of course applying a broad spectrum SPF 50-plus sunscreen to areas not covered by our clothes. What this bill addresses is that when people actually use a broad spectrum sunscreen what the label says is what they get; unfortunately it's not the case in Aotearoa where there's a wide range of sunscreens available on the market in the guise of many different types of products each with different formulation and ingredients and no requirement to comply with the existing Australian - New Zealand standard or even to have the product tested. The Greens have long supported consumer protections that ensure people can trust what they are buying. This bill would increase consumer trust in the claims of sunscreen brands. It would do this through the mandatory regulation under the Fair Trading Act 1986 to prescribe a safety standard in line with the Australia - New Zealand 2012 or later sunscreen standards as adopted by the Australian authorities. A mandatory standard will reduce skin cancer and it will save lives. I thank the member Todd Muller for bringing it in—congratulations—and I commend this bill to the House. Kia ora.