Stewart Barbara: Radiation Safety Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStewart Barbara: Radiation Safety Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 03 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9388. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA STEWART (NZ First): I am very pleased to rise on behalf of New Zealand First in the third reading of the Radiation Safety Bill. I was very pleased to be a part of the Health Committee as we reviewed the submissions and talked with the officials who made sure that our knowledge was far greater than it was when we first started looking at this bill. None of us are medical physicists and we needed that particular help.I was very interested in Kevin Hague’s speech—we can always learn in this particular area. I would like to say a big thankyou to the officials for their patience particularly as we all came up to speed.We support this bill. We know that it is for the safe use of ionising radiation. This bill will repeal and replace a very outdated Act the Radiation Protection Act. It is long overdue. There have been a lot of scientific developments in the 50 years since this bill was first introduced and it is important that our legislation keeps up to date with the latest technology particularly in this age. On this occasion we believe that the New Zealand public will be reassured that the bill will bring our legislation into line with international best practice and the principles of radiation safety. We are also satisfied too that the dose limits for radiation exposure are consistent with international standards and there have been a number of standards which were read out by previous speakers that we needed to bring our legislation in line with.We were pleased to hear that there is now a legislative provision for the registration of radiation sources. Previously only licence holders were required to be registered. This bill ensures that we now have provisions that are required by the International Atomic Energy Agency code of conduct. As other people have already pointed out it is good to see that the penalty for offences against the legislation are going to be increased. We definitely need deterrents in this part. For this bill it definitely successfully balances the benefits of ionising radiation with the health and safety of people and the environment.All of us on the select committee were very aware of the concerns that were voiced to us regarding non-ionising radiation. We are very satisfied that these two regulations should remain separate from this bill hence our desire to see the title changed. It is far easier to identify what legislation one is looking at when we have “Ionising Radiation” or “Non-Ionising Radiation” in the title. We are quite satisfied now that we are at this point.Although the bill proposed that it will be voluntary for applicants for a source licence to submit a radiation safety plan we believe it should be compulsory for every applicant for a source licence to submit a radiation safety plan for safety security and emergencies. That plan should identify how the individual or organisation is going to comply with the requirements of the bill. We believe that this is essential to ensure that the Act is actually complied with. One of the areas that we have some concerns about is that we want to hear how the Government is planning on supporting operators so that they themselves are fully prepared for the changes that have been made to this legislation.In conclusion we believe it is a very necessary bill which ensures our regulations are aligned with international best practice and the principles of radiation safety. Therefore New Zealand First is very happy to support this bill in its final reading and we will follow its implementation closely. Thank you.