Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East): Madam Speaker thank you for the opportunity to take a call on this bill the Sunscreen (Product Safety Standard) Bill. I'd like to acknowledge the member Todd Muller for bringing this bill to the House. The member mentioned a personal story that he has and I'm sure that many of us have either had a similar story or know someone very close to us who has had a story around melanoma because the most common form of cancer in New Zealand is basically skin cancers: making up a total of 82000 per year; all other cancers form a total of 16000—so skin cancer itself 82; all other cancers 16.Our skin cancer rates are the highest in the world. The melanoma rate in New Zealand and Australia is four times that of Canada the US and the UK. We have a very harsh sun here and the reality is that we have to be incredibly vigilant around this. So I'll talk a little bit about actually just to put a bit of context into it in terms of sunscreen what has brought us to the point that we are now with sunscreens and the SPF rating. Then I'll move on to the Government's position on this bill and then I'll talk a little bit more around various aspects of the bill.Before I start I also have a similar story about wanting to be cool. I think we've possibly all been there at some time! For me it was the 1980s with zinc—I don't know if people remember zinc; I can see some nods yes from people who are my age and older. Kieran McAnulty you are too young for zinc but it was various colours on the face. I mean we have a laugh about it because you know the colours were fairly vibrant. However it was an incredibly important campaign and we had zinc products come out with different colours for the express purpose of encouraging people to wear zinc which was obviously a form of sunscreen—a very good form actually as I understand it.So in terms of what has brought us to this point in terms of sunscreen just for the benefit of the House—a little bit of context. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians actually used sunscreen—Hon Gerry Brownlee: No.JAMIE STRANGE: They used natural products—that's right Mr Brownlee. Zinc oxide paste was around for thousands of years even before it was cool in the 1980s. Synthetic sunscreens were first used in 1928 so that's when the mass synthetic production of sunscreen came in 1928. In fact in World War II the US military used sunscreen in the Pacific. In 1974 the sun protection factor which has been alluded to in the previous member's speech—SPF—was introduced. That's 1974. Water-resistant sunscreens were introduced in 1977. Just in terms of the SPF rating most of the sunscreens in the 1970s were around an SPF rating of two or lower—very very light. We didn't know much about sunscreens and we didn't know much about skin cancer back then. But certainly things have changed. If we move forward to today's society dermatologists—and I tread carefully because I know we've got three doctors in the row in front of me here—recommend SPF of 30 or above and an SPF of 30 blocks 90 percent of the sun's UV rays. But the point of the SPF and the point of this bill here is that SPF ratings must be accurate. If someone is buying an SPF rating of 15 but the rating isn't 15 then there can be quite severe consequences. Some people for you know quite strict medical reasons need 30 or 50 SPF. And if they are picking something off the shelf that says that and it is not there can be life-threatening consequences as we've heard outlined in the previous speech.Just to move on to this Government's position on this bill at the first reading: so the Government are supporting this bill to select committee. We are not guaranteeing any support beyond that but we are supporting this bill to the select committee. We think it is important for it to go through that process.This bill requires the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to recommend the making of regulations under section 29 of the Fair Trading Act 1986 prescribing a product safety standard for sunscreen products. The Government is supporting this bill to select committee to facilitate additional consideration of the regulations surrounding safety standards for sunscreen products.We are however—as the member alluded to—already progressing the regulation of sunscreen products as part of the proposed Therapeutic Products Bill which we anticipate will be introduced to the House later this year. Now I acknowledge the member's comments in terms of wanting to move quickly but that is just to signal to the member that we do intend to bring that bill in towards the end of the year. We are supporting taking a health-based approach to the regulation of sunscreen safety standards.What the bill does: so it requires the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to recommend the making of regulations in the Fair Trading Act. It states that the product safety standard the New Zealand standard with sunscreen or any New Zealand standard situated for that standard—it notes that the Minister must make the recommendations as soon as practicable after the commencement of this Act but no later than six months after its commencement.So the reason we are supporting it to select committee is because while we are progressing the regulation of sunscreen products as part of the proposed Therapeutic Products Bill select committee scrutiny of this particular bill will offer an additional opportunity for consideration of the regulatory settings around the safety of sunscreen products. And obviously we will consider our support then again after the select committee process. So we support taking a health-based approach to the regulation of sunscreen safety standards. I'd also like to touch on something that the previous speaker highlighted which was the work done by Consumer New Zealand because this is quite important work for this piece of legislation. I quote Consumer New Zealand. They say The Sunscreen Product Safety Standard Bill … highlights the need for better regulation and could provide an opportunity to make sunscreen testing mandatory". That's what Consumer New Zealand said and that obviously certainly fits in with the work that we are doing on this side of the House. So there are certainly various streams of work going on in this area because it is important that we do have things right in this space. As Consumer New Zealand said sunscreen is currently classified as a cosmetic and that is at the root of the issue here: the fact that because it is a cosmetic manufacturers aren't required to regularly test these products and the sunscreen standard is voluntary. We heard previously—and just to highlight it again—at the Consumer New Zealand test five of the 10 products—which is quite remarkable actually; Consumer New Zealand took 10 products off the shelf checked their SPF rating. Five of those 10 products were inaccurate; they didn't meet the SPF label claim and they weren't over the SPF; they were under the SPF. As I highlighted earlier in my speech that certainly has potentially fatal ramifications around skin cancer. And in fact two of those also failed to meet the requirements for broad spectrum protection. In Australia sunscreen is subject to a mandatory standard and regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. In 2019 Consumer New Zealand wrote to the Minister of Health urging for priority to be given to a mandatory sunscreen standard. So there is no doubt that the time has come for a mandatory sunscreen standard. In terms of Consumer New Zealand the chief Jon Duffy said "The results were unfortunately not much a of a surprise" which is quite sobering because I'm sure if you walked down to Lambton Quay and spoke to members of the public and held up a bottle of sunscreen—you know "Do you believe this is SPF 30 or 40?"—most of them would say "Yeah I'm sure it is." But the fact that the CEO of Consumer New Zealand said that it wasn't much of a surprise that only five out of 10 were accurate—that is certainly concerning. So basically just to summarise people need to be clear on what they are buying in terms of the SPF rating. The member has brought a bill to the House; we're supporting it at first reading to select committee. Also from the Government's side of it we are working on a piece of legislation as well which will be ready by the end of the year. So Madam Speaker thank you for the opportunity to speak to this bill and we support it at first reading. Thank you."