Bond RiaRIA BOND (NZ First): I am pleased to rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak to the third reading of the Health (Protection) Amendment Bill. This bill seeks to amend the Health Act 1956 around infectious diseases and it will repeal the Tuberculosis Act 1948. New Zealand First supports these provisions of the bill.However the provisions to continue to support artificial UV tanning services is where New Zealand First must draw the line. There is nothing more important than the protection of New Zealanders' health and there are provisions within this bill that aim to do just that. I have been rather fortunate to sit on the Health Committee on a few occasions and I can tell you firsthand of the hard-working individuals who comprise the select committee. As my colleague Barbara Stewart has said and pointed out it is a brilliant committee and it works hard to improve the health of all New Zealanders working constructively towards meeting those needs.We know that the bill has three main aims pertaining to infectious diseases. Firstly it is to increase the number of diseases that are notifiable which will result in improved monitoring. There are incremental options to manage individuals with certain infectious diseases who are at risk of infecting others. And there is improved contact tracing to inform and provide treatment if necessary to those who have or who may have been exposed to an infectious disease. New Zealand First supports these aims of this bill.We are pleased that sexually transmitted infections are being treated more seriously. The infection chlamydia has been added to the list of notifiable diseases which we view as essential given it is the most common sexually transmitted disease in New Zealand. Often there are no symptoms or signs of chlamydia so it is important that sexual partners are contacted so they can receive treatment in a timely manner. We know that if chlamydia is left untreated it can cause permanent damage including infertility. New Zealand First supports the Ministry of Health in its continuing effort to improve the communication of these risks to young people and the importance of seeking treatment.We remain of the opinion that provisions within this bill must be proportionate to the level of the risk to the general public. That said the provisions pertaining to artificial tanning services are disappointing. The lack of a total ban falls short of what is actually required. New Zealand First knows that this Government is gutless and is running scared at the thought of the outright banning of artificial UV tanning services. Minister Coleman himself knows that fewer New Zealanders are using sunbeds. It is not just the Opposition parties on this side of the House that can see the logic in the outright banning of UV tanning services. The submitters told us to ban it. The Cancer Society told us to ban it. The Medical Council of New Zealand told us to ban it. The World Health Organization advised us to ban it. But this National-led Government sitting up there in its ivory tower does not see the real devastating effects of sunbed use. It has taken a soft approach and decided to age-restrict UV tanning services. That is gutless. That is absolutely gutless. New Zealand First would like to point out to this National-led Government that skin cancer melanoma does not discriminate against age. Unfortunately we saw this firsthand with the sad passing of Holly Devine at just 26 years of age on Friday 17 June—a life ended far too early by melanoma. This is just not an age-related cancer so it makes no sense that a ban on sunbeds would apply only to those persons under the age of 18. We believe that banning commercial sunbeds would have been a very positive and proactive step to protect the future health of New Zealanders. We know that we have the highest rate of melanoma in the world along with Australia. Yet the Government does not seem to regard this as a big enough health issue to implement a ban on a device that is known to cause skin cancer. Overwhelming evidence provided by the World Health Organization shows that UV tanning devices are carcinogenic. That should have been enough to lead this Government to ban sunbeds completely. The Ministry of Health tells us that from 2009 to 2013 there were 1477 new cases of melanoma in those aged under 44 years. In plain language New Zealand has the highest rate of invasive melanoma in the world.Barbara Stewart: And the highest death rate.RIA BOND: And the highest death rate as my colleague Barbara Stewart said. Let us remember that before the age of 35 the risk of developing melanoma shoots up by 75 percent. An estimate of the number of skin cancers treated every year in New Zealand is a staggering 67000. This is not an insignificant number and it should tell us that we must do more. The Cancer Society estimates skin cancer to cost over $123 million each year to the health system and in lost productivity. Not only is there a human cost but there are high financial costs as well.Why will the Government not get some guts and show some leadership and ban UV tanning beds here in New Zealand? Without the ban on sunbeds voluntary regulations will remain. We have heard from other speakers on this bill about how they do not believe that this will actually be enforceable. We know that many operators in salons and nail studios are not actually complying with this voluntary regulation. I have seen the evidence of this myself in hair and beauty salons and nail clinics. The requirements are to wear protective goggles and to give a thorough skin analysis and consultation per tanner.I want to just briefly talk about that. Salons that have sunbeds within them or sunbed-only tanning salons simply download whatever they choose off the internet to be deemed sufficient to ask three or four questions that are absolutely irrelevant to giving a precise consultation to sun tanners or to ensure that their skin meets the sufficient requirement to tan on the beds in the first place. In all the years that I have been in the industry we have never had tough monitoring at all under a voluntary regulation and I am aware that is still occurring today. At the very least we should ensure that minimum standards are upheld and are mandatory.Not only that there are simply not enough feet on the ground in terms of people power to check this within these businesses around New Zealand. I am aware that in Auckland they have very limited resources in the council to send out health inspectors into hair salons and the beauty industry sector and in fact some of them are lucky if they get visited once a year. So how on earth is this going to be policed? The Government is adamant that extra compliance measures for sunbed operators will put people off having them in their businesses. Well I absolutely agree with that because what is going to happen is they will pull those beds outside of their businesses and they will take them home and offer services to clients there. This will force the sunbed tanning industry to go underground at home so that it cannot be monitored. As I stand here I know that there are more than 10 people right now having those services within homes.In conclusion this Government is out of touch. New Zealand First asked about the lives that are lost and the effects on families from skin cancer and melanoma death. We believe that the Government has missed an opportunity to do something positive for the future health of this country. The Government seems determined to go against the consensus and indeed common sense. New Zealand First supports Part 1 of this bill but we have drawn a line in the sand and will not tolerate the soft measures taken by this Government in Part 2 of this bill. It is really important that New Zealanders know that New Zealand First will stick to our guns when bills such as this one in its entirety are not fit for purpose and make no sense at all. For this reason New Zealand First will abstain from voting on this bill.