Smith DamienDAMIEN SMITH (ACT): I had a dream last night about sunscreen. My new friend Kieran McAnulty and I were sitting—it was Easter we were drinking pints at the Honest Broker or sorry the Honest Lawyer pub in Nelson and there was extended hours and it was just like the bills came together. I said to Kieran Can we have some more pints? You're looking a bit red though in the face show us your sunscreen." And I said "Oh that one's no good. You should stop taking that." And then a flash forward to the summer when Mr Nash and I were standing on the beach in our budgie smugglers welcoming back the Australians to our fine beaches and I said "Stuart why have they got better sun cream than us?" And then my mind turned to the law a very serious piece of work that needs to be done. But I have a solution which will bridge that.So the bill does require the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to recommend the setting of mandatory regulation. And by way of background Mr Muller's already touched on the standards between Australia and New Zealand which prescribes product tests and labelling requirements for both broad-based spectrum and water-resistant sunscreen products and there's now powders. But both countries take a very different approach to how they apply this. In Australia the standard is mandatory but here New Zealand's compliance is voluntary. This means that a sunscreen product in Australia can't go on to the shelf without meeting the standard but in New Zealand it means that anyone can make a sunscreen and sell it without having to test it provides the claims and protections that it states. There's clearly a market failure here and even though the ACT Party is light on regulation I think this is a good case for it.So the bill requires a sunscreen standard to be set as mandatory in Fair Trading Act regulations. But just to give you a bit of background I have a 13-year-old daughter who was diagnosed after a mole check with an advanced melanoma which is unheard of really at that age. We had to go to the USA for a test because it was actually an adult-type tumour. We were really lucky to catch it at a very early stage otherwise she mightn't be here today. But now she's confined to covering up from exposure at certain times of the day. There needs to be a complete education programme around the use of sunscreen and also when you should go out and how you should plan and there should be professional advice around that.So that's when I found out about the variability in sunscreens and standards. So we do need to meet our mothers' and children's and young adults' expectations. As for the law a mandatory requirement may not be necessary to correct this issue. It is likely governed under the Fair Trading Act but it is misleading. However a mandatory requirement would ensure that such misleading advertising can be brought more easily into line.The ACT Party has a recommendation. This policy is a very worthy one. On this point ensuring clear standards and accurate information to consumers is vital. It's vitally important to mothers kids teenagers and to give them confidence. Moreover recent reporting has highlighted the dangers to comply with a gap in the current regime. We do see pictures of sunburnt children in the newspapers and on television but there's nothing worse than seeing them in your own home. But I have lived with that fear and the fear of loss.However the method of addressing the policy objective here is peculiar. The bill instructs the Minister to regulate. If the bill has the numbers to pass it will obviously require Labour's support. If Labour supports the bill it could simply pass an Order in Council instead of wasting Parliament's time and that's no disrespect to the committee stage process. I would plead with them to do that. Arguably a better medium for this type of policy change would have been through a letter to the Minister.Given the aforementioned the ACT Party will be supporting the first reading of this bill while making this point. And if Labour is in support they should regulate immediately rather than wasting Parliament's time further and do a sun-loving act to the outdoors people of New Zealand a great service to all the consumers that use these products. However if it goes to select committee we will be supporting that and we will be supporting the first reading. So we'd like that option to be considered. And thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight."