Doocey MattSYNTHETIC URINE (PROHIBITION ON IMPORTATION SUPPLY AND ACQUISITION TO PASS A WORKPLACE DRUG TEST) BILLFirst ReadingMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): I move That the Synthetic Urine (Prohibition on Importation Supply and Acquisition to Pass a Workplace Drug Test) Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Education and Workforce Committee to consider the bill. The main purpose of this bill is to restrict and regulate the sale supply and importation of synthetic urine in order to prevent synthetic urine being used in New Zealand to deceive all aspects of urine drug-testing. Nothing in this bill is intended to prohibit importation supply or acquisition of synthetic urine for legitimate purposes such as scientific research or industrial use.If I can start with the obvious I suppose when you have a name like Synthetic Urine" in a bill it is going to provoke some comment. I noticed when the bill was pulled from the ballot Stuff and I think Luke Malpass put the headline "Doocey Taking the Piss" and I accept that. Luke Malpass is actually from my home town of Rangiora. It's a good dry sense of Cantabrian humour so I accept those gibes. But let us be very serious: this is a serious issue in New Zealand. How do we have retailers openly selling synthetic urine but not only that openly advertising it as a way to cheat a workplace drug-test? Because I tell you what our family will go to work tomorrow and our neighbours our work colleagues and our friends. If they go to a workplace tomorrow maybe with heavy machinery and someone in that team has been smoking cannabis the night before or the morning of and passes a workplace drug-test because of synthetic urine that could potentially kill someone we love. That could potentially hurt someone we love.Now I'll accept it's not that long ago I knew nothing about this and that's the beauty of being an electorate MP. Everyone in this House will know you do your constituent clinics for the day you've got seven or eight appointments you come in you look through the notes and go "Really? Is this taking the piss?". Then they turn up and then you actually think "Hold on this person's actually quite credible." and that happened to me because it was a constituent in my electorate of Waimakariri who came and met me. He owns a large agricultural contracting business. He found out one of his staff passed a drug test using synthetic urine. He was alarmed and then someone in his workplace showed him the websites where you can actually go into retail shops in New Zealand or go online. Not only is it synthetic urine but it's warming pads so you can warm it. There's actually phalluses so you can pass the urine through it as well. This is quite a comprehensive system that allows you to cheat a workplace drug-test. He was outraged and I could imagine why. The really disappointing thing is he genuinely but naively went to the media and do you know what? This is critical of the media but do you know what the media did? The first thing they said was "Oh you've clearly got a drug problem in your workplace. We'll report that." That guy had spent his whole life building that workplace up and now because some person that he had trusted had let him down his whole reputation of his agricultural contracting business was going to go down the drain. So he couldn't go down that route so what he did—I mean it's serious. He called the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE). They said it was nothing to do with them and to call the Ministry for Primary Industries. He called the Ministry for Primary Industries and they said "Nothing to do with us. Call the Ministry of Health" so he called the Ministry of Health who said "Nothing to do with us. Go to the Department of Labour". So he went to the Department of Labour and they said "Nothing to do with us." So he called WorkSafe; he still hasn't heard back from them. Then he went to the Department of Internal Affairs who put him back in touch with MBIE right at the start of the circle again. Finally MBIE advised him that it's not illegal to sell this product so MBIE suggested "lobbying Government through MP" to make it illegal. MBIE told him to go to his local MP and that is the beauty of the New Zealand democratic system. You can pitch up to your MP in your local neighbourhood get them on board the MP goes to—and I want to acknowledge the Office of the Clerk legislative counsel because when you ring them up and say "Oh look I'd like to put a member's bill together around synthetic urine." they're probably thinking "Really?" But they put a lot of work into this and came up with the format and the legislation in the bill that's proposed today around the regulation. So I want to acknowledge them. Basically it's now in the ballot and it gets pulled which is fantastic. This person can now have their day to say do we want to live in a country where retailers because of profit openly want to sell—and look go online and have a look at these retailers. I will advise you just to be slightly cautionary because some confronting images pop up. Go into COSMIC the Hemp Store Wicked Habits VAPEVAPE. They've all got retail shops all online and they're openly selling it. How can you openly sell a product and it says online "Use this to go and cheat a drug test."? That puts everyone at risk. Where is their duty of care? I just find that absolutely outrageous. How can we have this going on? I do note that other jurisdictions internationally have banned synthetic urine for this use—the United States as an example. So other countries—[Interruption] Oh the Hon Michael Woodhouse has just googled one of those. Hon Michael Woodhouse: That's something I'll never unsee. MATT DOOCEY: No—no. He's looking at it now. So that is—Hon Peeni Henare: On his work phone. MATT DOOCEY: Ha ha! Drug test tomorrow in Parliament—everyone's scurrying down to COSMIC tonight! Hey look let's have a bit of fun with this. Like I said in the name it does but this is a very serious issue I believe because in the end what party in Parliament wants a workplace where there is a legal product to circumvent the drug tests? I did go back to this person and say "Is there much chance that this can be picked up?" Now it's interesting. I spoke to The Drug Detection Agency CEO Kirk Hardy who has come out in support of this. Just one drug detection agency alone—and there's a lot of them in New Zealand—and they're saying on average 1 percent of tests pick up synthetic urine. So for them alone it's several hundred people a year that are testing positive for synthetic urine. Not all testing equipment is of the sensitivity to pick up synthetic urine and of course like any game once that product gets caught they'll change the component of it. I did ask why not do saliva testing and he said that saliva testing does not give you the accuracy and the effectiveness of urine testing and that he would not be moving towards it. That's what I've heard from the construction sector as well who also back this bill as well. So what we have is one of those issues where just a genuine person encounters it and thinks "Well this isn't right." In fact I haven't met anyone yet who thinks it's actually right to sell synthetic urine to pass a drug test and to retail it like that as well. I started my speech to say that I wasn't looking to outlaw it. It did surprise me a bit but when I did my research there is legitimate use—for instance primarily for laboratory calibration of screening equipment needed for urine examination—and it goes on a lot of specific industrial and research uses as well. So I think this bill is quite well-crafted and basically just stops the ability for someone to sell synthetic urine with the intent of the purchaser passing or cheating a workplace drug-test and for that person to be doing it themselves. I do hope this bill will get support tonight. I think it's one of those ones that we will take to select committee and it will have legs of its own. It's a big issue that I think we need to address and why should we have this on sale in New Zealand? Thank you Madam Speaker."